April 28, 2008

National Academies to Revisit 'Gathering Storm' on Science and the Economy

Washington — Two years ago, the National Academies sounded the alarm in a widely cited report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” that America was slipping behind other countries in science and technology. On Tuesday leaders from academe and business will meet here to try to refocus Congress’s attention on the report’s many recommendations that require lawmakers’ action.

One expected topic of discussion on Tuesday is a lobbying effort already under way to persuade Congress to increase federal spending for physical-sciences research significantly this year. The money could be squeezed into a broader supplemental-appropriations bill that legislators are expected to consider in the coming weeks to finance the Iraq war.

Congress provided only minimal increases for the National Science Foundation and the Energy Department’s Office of Science for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends in September, even though much-bigger raises had been authorized by the America Competes Act, which was enacted last year to improve economic competitiveness.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, has reportedly expressed support for redressing that situation in the forthcoming spending bill. The proposal remains on the table, even though she also has promised a tight rein on nonmilitary spending. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it contains spending unrelated to the war.

The lobbying effort has included a letter of support to House leaders from 31 members of both parties and a separate letter to the president from more than 200 universities and corporations. —Jeffrey Brainard

Comments

1. The US is lagging behind not only in achievement but also science literacy… there is a movement afoot, for instance, to allow parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children. When you read their reasons, it’s obvious they are ignorant of the science behind it. Yes, there is a risk but there is more of a risk in the diseases the vaccinations prevent. I lay this at the doors of fear, ignorance and the disgraceful anti-science policies of the Bush administration. Three doors… hmmm… well, you get my panic!

   — Elizabeth    Apr 29, 09:04 AM    #

2. Basic science research in the 1st half of the 20th century resulted in many technological advances in the 2nd half. Without basic science research, we are not going to produce needed and wanted technological advances in a wide variety of areas. We are only hurting our own future.

   Congress should fund the basic science research.

   — george    Apr 29, 09:55 AM    #

3. The first comment has it wrong, it puts the horse behind the weels. Precisely because the parents are seeing that 1 in 4 vaccinations is improper (suspected for a long time and reported in today’s news), they got some “science literacy” which today also means not going to hospital and not taking any drugs unless in really critical condition. There are reasons for panic, but exacly the opposite ones.

   Yes, george is right. The science is looking for manipulating and “controlling” processes that are not even understood.

   — Michael Pyshnov    Apr 29, 10:16 AM    #

4. I teach research methods in the behavioral sciences, and find that systematic and logical thought are constantly under attack by my “colleagues” in some areas of the humanities (also often in sociology). The students are confused__ which is superior, reasoned inquiry or impressionistic “know-it-allsim”? They have the same problems seeing the two as equally meritorious as I do.

   American Academe’ has yet to recover from the onslaughts against reason waged by postmodernists (including feminists, Afrocentrists, and other “anti-science” mentalities) that have so eroded any sense of direction or purpose in higher education. Psychobabble about nothing being real because all things are “social constructions of reality” does not advance knowledge worth a hill of beans, no matter how hip, cool, and “with it” such thinking is.

   The fact that our pop experts on “diversity” (the current academic “cat’s meow”) are incapable of offering a coherent definition of what it is that they are experts on speaks volumes about what happens to education when scientific thinking is marginalized.

   There may not be a way back from this mess…

   — KDR    Apr 29, 10:22 AM    #

5. We need to continue stressing the separation of science from perference or belief. Things which are factual and supported through scientific process are not debatable, whether from a standpoint of faith, preference, diversity or other viewpoints. There is entirely too much emphasis on distorting fact to serve viewpoint.

   — Al    Apr 29, 11:46 AM    #

6. KDR, how could you plagiarise my unwritten thoughts?

   — Michael Pyshnov    Apr 29, 12:35 PM    #

7. Al, I’m not sure what you are saying here. Isn’t the scientific process one of debate? I was taught and continue to teach that we “reject” or “fail to reject” the null never “accept” the null. The concept of “fact” seems to fly in the face of science as does “proof.”

   — GL    Apr 29, 01:14 PM    #

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