Ongoing frustration with the trivial role science has played in the current congressional elections, combined with a deeper sense that the Bush administration is ignoring and misusing science, has led a group of prominent scientists to form a national political advocacy organization with the intent of influencing elections and government policy.
Within a few weeks of its creation in September, Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA) claimed nearly 5000 members. The group’s 19-member board of advisers includes eight Nobel laureates and President Bill Clinton’s former science advisers, physicists John Gibbons and Neal Lane.
The new organization evolved from a political group formed by several of the same scientists prior to the 2004 presidential election to support Senator John Kerry’s bid for the White House. “The theme all the way along has been frustration that the key [science] issues are not debated in the campaigns,” said physicist Henry Kelly, president of...
