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Politics & Science: How their Interplay results in public policy |
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“Politics and Science” is the fifteenth in the social research conference series, which began in 1989. From the beginning, this series has tried to foster public discussion of matters of grave importance, and has explored those matters both in terms of their immediate import and, whenever possible, within their historical and cultural contexts. To realize the mission of the conference series, we attempt with each conference to bring together scholars and practitioners from a broad array of disciplines so that the topics are viewed from a range of perspectives. But something has happened to this series in the past few years that reflects the troubling changes in our society, with the consequence that the conferences have become less scholarly and academic, and decidedly more political. Despite our efforts, it turned out to be extremely difficult to get representatives of the current administration to agree to speak at this conference. In fact, the list of people who declined our invitation to participate is an impressive one. Current events seem designed to make the subject of “Politics and Science” increasingly relevant to what is going on between scientists, policymakers, and government officials. However, the initial idea for the conference grew out of my reading of a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report, issued in February 2004, on scientific integrity, in which the group called for immediate steps to be taken to “restore the integrity of science in the federal policymaking process.” This statement was signed by over 8,000 scientists, including 49 Nobel laureates, 63 National Medal of Science recipients, and 171 members of the National Academies of Sciences. In June 2005, Anthony Romero, director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a report documenting how recent changes in federal policy have imposed “excessive, unnecessary, and ineffective restrictions on scientists.” Unfortunately, things have only continued to get worse. It is, I hope, our not-too-delusional wish that this issue of Social Research, which contains the papers from the “Politics and Science” conference, will help to change the relationship between scientists and policymakers so that the policies enacted will be based on the best scientific research available and will protect our well-being and that of future generations here and around the world. I am deeply grateful to our funders, the Hewlett Foundation and the Packard Foundation, for their generous support of the conference, and to the many people who did their best to educate me on this subject and to those who worked with me to make the conference happen. Arien Mack |
Table
of Contents(click on article title for abstract or for full text options)
Notes
on Contributors
(at
time of publication)
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Gerald Holton is Mallinckrodt Research
Professor of Physics and Research Professor of
the History of Science at Harvard University.
Science Policy in the United States: A Commentary
on the State of the Art
Henry Kelly is President of the Federation of American Scientists. He has worked for
the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the OTA, and the OSTP.
Cholera Outbreaks and Ocean Climate
Rita R. Colwell Chairman of Canon U.S. Life
Sciences, Inc., also serves as Distinguished
University Professor at the University of
Maryland, College Park, and on the faculty
of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health.
What's New about the Politics of Science?
Daniel J. Kevles is Stanley Woodward
Professor of History, Professor of American
Studies, and of Law (adjunct) at the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale
University. He is also Chair of the Program
in the History of Medicine and Science. Katayoun Chamany is a faculty member
in the Science, Technology, and Society
program of Eugene Lang College, The New
School. She uses a sociopolitical approach
to teach courses in the area of infectious
diseases, cell biology, and genetics. The Permanent Limits of Modern Science—
From Birth to Death
Eric Cohen is Director of the Biotechnology and American Democracy
program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Editor of The New Atlantis. The Politics of Health Care
M. Joycelin Elders is Professor Emeritus
at the University of Arkansas School of
Medicine. She was appointed US Surgeon
General by President Bill Clinton, and was
the first women to hold that post. Science, Religion, and the Politics of Stem Cells
William B. Hurlbut, a physician and
Consulting Professor in the Program in
Human Biology at Stanford University,
currently serves on the President’s Council
on Bioethics. Abstinence-Only Education: Politics, Science, and
Ethics
John S. Santelli is Professor and
Chairman, Heilbrunn Department of
Population and Family Health, Mailman
School of Public Health, and Professor of
Clinical Pediatrics, College of Physicians and
Surgeons, Columbia University. Politics and Science: A Series of Lessons
Neal Lane is Malcolm Gillis University
Professor at Rice University. He also holds
appointments as Senior Fellow of the James
A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and in
the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dawn Rittenhouse, Director of Sustainable
Development at DuPont, works on sustainability
with DuPont businesses and leads
DuPont's efforts at the World Business
Council for Sustainable Development and
with the U.N. Global Compact. Science and Environmental Policy:
The Role of Nongovernmental
Michael Oppenheimer is Albert G. Milbank
Professor of Geosciences and International
Affairs and the Director of the Program in
Science, Technology, and Environmental
Policy at Princeton University. Environmental Science and Public Policy
Steven F. Hayward is F. K. Weyerhaeuser
Fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute for Public Policy Research and
a Senior Fellow at the Pacific Research
Institute for Public Policy. He studies the
environment, law, political economy, and
the presidency. Environmental Science Input to Public Policy
Paul R. Ehrlich is President of the Center
for Conservation Biology and the Bing
Professor of Population Studies at Stanford
University. Can We Still Avoid Dangerous Human-Made Climate Change?
James E. Hansen is Director of the NASA
Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS),
a laboratory of the Earth-Sun Exploration
Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center and a unit of the Columbia
University Earth Institute. An Energy Revolution for the Greenhouse Century Martin Hoffert is Professor Emeritus of
Physics at New York University. His research
focuses on global environmental change,
geophysical fluid dynamics, oceanography, biogeochemical cycles, and alternate energy
technology. Science, Policy, and Politics: Comparing and Contrasting Issues
in Energy and the Environment Paul Gilman is Director of the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory Center for Advanced
Studies. In 2002 he was appointed US EPA
Science Adviser. Climate Change and Nuclear Power Kurt Gottfried is Professor Emeritus
of Physics at Cornell University and
Co-founder and Chair of the Union of
Concerned Scientists. He is a former Chair
of the Division of Particles and Fields of the
American Physical Society. Roundtable Discussion Ira Flatow is the host of Talk of The Nation: Science Friday on National Public Radio and the founder and President of Talking Science, a nonprofit company dedicated to creating radio, TV, and Internet projects that make science user-friendly. Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. David Goldston is Chief of Staff of the House Committee on Science, which oversees most of the federal civilian research and development budget, including programs run by NASA, the NSF, the DOE, and the EPA. Rush Holt is the US Representative from New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. He serves on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Ellis Rubinstein is President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences. An award-winning journalist and Editor of Science for a decade, he also worked at The Scientist, Newsweek, Science 85 and IEEE Spectrum. Philip M. Smith directed the Academies’ National Research Council from 1981 through 1993. He has known and worked with all the science advisers from the Eisenhower through Clinton administrations, and has published extensively on science and technology and public policy. Ruth Wooden is President of Public Agenda. She also serves on the Boards of US Trust Company, Research!America, Phoenix House Foundation, Demos, and Civic Ventures, San Francisco. Back To Top |
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