I've now been writing for this website since October of 2007, and have delighted to watch it mature into one of the top sites for serious science policy analysis on the web. To that end, my one year anniversary column, entitled "A Year's Worth of Thinking About Science Policy," enumerates five of the recurrent themes that have emerged from the site:
1. We need a new administration that takes science much more seriously across the board--that listens to scientists, that follows recommendations and wants to restore integrity to science in the federal government. 2. We need a similar rapprochement between science and Congress. 3. Amid concerns about U.S. competitiveness in science, let's not forget that today the youngest scientists in America are struggling, disadvantaged in trying to get grants, and stuck in postdoc holding patterns. 4. While the American science community still leads the world in research, it has not really emphasized outreach and communication, and as a result has seen declining societal influence and relevance. 5. All of this matters quite a great deal because advances in the life sciences--in particular, genetics and neuroscience--stand poised to radically transform our understanding of human identity, free will, morality, and obligations between generations. Unless we reunite science with politics and culture, we will face a rocky road indeed as a new set of science-related controversies begin to erupt.
You can read the full column here.
