US scientists reject interference (BBC) {10,000 signatures! WOOHOO!}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.

The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.

According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons.

It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.

The Union has released an "A to Z" guide that it says documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science, covering issues ranging from global warming to sex education.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6178213.stm

[volstork]

1. it's about time!

[WindRavenX]

2. It's sad it even has to come to this

The US is a joke to the world.

[Hekate]

3. KnR #4. Do you think they'll tell the high school science teachers...

...that they should be using "An Inconveneient Truth" instead of suppressing it to get Exxon finds?

Hekate

[lovuian]

4. Its a little late but Its appreciated that Scientists

are showing some morals

[eppur_se_muova]

5. SIGN THE PETITION HERE -- all scientists and engineers !!

http://www.ucsusa.org/forms/RSIsciform.html

background statement: http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/scientists-signon-statement.html

A-Z guide: http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/a-to-z-guide-to-political.html

There's a lot of stuff on these pages, including the names of the signatories.

"Science, like any field of endeavor, relies on freedom of inquiry; and one of the hallmarks of that freedom is objectivity. Now, more than ever, on issues ranging from climate change to AIDS research to genetic engineering to food additives, government relies on the impartial perspective of science for guidance."

President George H.W. Bush, April 23, 1990 {?}

[Zodiak]

10. Thank you for posting this

I signed it. Make it 10,001 scientists who thinks that this bullshit should not continue.

[Harper_is_Bush]

6. Excellent to see. I hope it gets some play in the US, but...

somehow doubt it.

[ShockediSay]

7. Reminds me of Iraq - cooking the intel

to fit policy.

Maybe it's just simpler to say these guys want all of us to walk around in their "creation" of their own reality.

[alfredo]

8. Great! give that bully hell.

[madrchsod]

9. so? they are all liberal godless democrats

just wait till the god fearing christian scientists start their petition

[YankeyMCC]

11. k & r

[truedelphi]

12. Having to interview scientists on a weekly basis

I could see this was coming.

They have been resentful for years - and at last put together the footwork needed to
unite the 10,000 from all the various fields.

It might seem anti-climactic to some - but remember Bush is still in the W.H., and the funding that so many researchers depend on is Federal government driven.

My hat is off to them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Yay! Our scientist are almost as spunky and rebellious as our Librarians!

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Well, look how many scientists you see marrying librarians...

It's way over the threshold of statistical significance. :D

(Of course, there may be other reasons, but...)

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. They always say, beware of the quiet ones..

I also heard somewhere, beware the wrath of a patient man.

[truedelphi]

16. Here's some other science related news about W.H. science suppression

I did not get a link so you'll have to google a selected term or the author's name
<sorry bout that>

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 ·
New publishing rules restrict scientists
By JOHN HEILPRIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, the latest agency subjected to controls on research that might go against official policy.
New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.


Top officials at the Interior Department's scientific arm say the rules only standardize what scientists must do to ensure the quality of their work and give a heads-up to the agency's public relations staff.
"This is not about stifling or suppressing our science, or politicizing our science in any way," Barbara Wainman, the agency's director of communications, said Wednesday. "I don't have approval authority. What it was designed to do is to improve our product flow."
Some agency scientists, who until now have felt free from any political interference, worry that the objectivity of their work could be compromised.


"I feel as though we've got someone looking over our shoulder at every damn thing we do. And to me that's a very scary thing. I worry that it borders on censorship," said Jim Estes, an internationally recognized marine biologist in the USGS field station at Santa Cruz, Calif.