When John Marburger became the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on 23 October, his appointment was greeted with both enthusiasm and skepticism in the science community. Marburger, the respected director of Brookhaven National Laboratory before coming to Washington, was considered a good choice for the job by most political observers, including several past presidential science advisers. The concern wasn’t with Marburger, but with President Bush, who had left the OSTP position vacant for nearly six months.
During that time, the administration made pronouncements on global warming, arsenic levels in water, stem cell research, and a few other science-related issues that gave the science community pause. “There were a number of decisions early on where the president didn’t have all of the advice that he needed” said Neal Lane, President Bill Clinton’s science adviser. “But maybe those missteps led the president and his policy advisers to...
