Uncertain Principles: Loose Lips Sink Research Grants

Uncertain Principles: Loose Lips Sink Research Grants

...but this year's talk by a program director from the Department of Energy raised the average blood pressure at our table by a good bit. ...

The main subject matter wasn't terribly exciting-- she told the story of how the "American Competitiveness Initiative" came about from an National Academy of Science report. It's a moderately interesting story of political maneuvering, but she didn't really add much other than bureaucratic jargon to the story that had already been published in the New York Times and elsewhere.

The annoying thing was the peripheral message-- she took pains to state several times that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress support science, in a tone that basically came across as chiding us for thinking otherwise. That was annoying by itself, but at the very end of the talk, she specifically warned against taking partisan positions, citing the letter supporting John Kerry that was signed by a couple dozen Nobel laureates as something that made it harder to keep science funding. She said that after that, when she met with administration officials about budget matters, she could see them thinking "Damn scientists..."

Not only does that take an incredible amount of gall to come out and say (accepting government funding does not preclude private political speech), it pretty much gives the lie to her earlier assertions that the administration and the Republican party support science. Even leaving aside the issues raised by their cozying up to creationists and shady industry groups, if you really support science, that support should not be contingent on scientists holding opinions that you agree with. The idea that private political speech by scientists would affect funding decisions is another appalling example of the way the modern Republican party places politics ahead of policy.