Do We Need a Science White House?

Drs. David Baltimore and Ahmed Zewail, both Nobel Lauriates, have an editorial in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that we need a science White House.

Protecting that future starts with understanding that much of the wealth in this country comes from scientific research and technological innovation. Translating science into commerce has opened up vast new fields of endeavor and has raised the standard of living in America. The country that is on the cutting edge of developing new technology is the country best positioned to benefit from that new technology.

A clear example is biotechnology. The U.S. is a leader here, and is able to capitalize on its pre-eminence with disease-resistant crops, anticancer drugs and much more. By developing a strong understanding of the basic science that underlies advances in biotechnology, we are also creating a good training ground for a future generation of scientists and innovators.

They go on to point out that becoming a scientist in the USA getting less and less attractive primarily because basic reseach depends upon government grant money. They point out that todays basic research scientist spends far too much time attempting to wrangle grant money out of the government....time that could be spent researching.

We need a president who moves science back into the White House. Today we do not have a presidential science adviser and there is no office of science in the White House.

But more importantly, these two scientists point out that understanding science today is not a luxury but a neccessity.