Obama names science and technology team

[SallyMander]

As a scientist, I can't tell you how good it feels to read this... It'll probably get buried here today, but having a science-friendly (FACT-friendly!) administration will be an incredible advancement. I don't even have the words for how big a deal this is, and what an enormous change it represents from the past eight years.

And I suspect he used the word "inconvenient" very deliberately. ;)

(CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama named his science and technology team Saturday with a pledge to ensure that “facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.”

“It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology,” he said in his Saturday radio address, in an apparent offhand swipe at President Bush.

“It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient,” Obama said, adding that government support had been essential for the greatest scientific breakthroughs of recent history, like the development of the Internet. “Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

[firedupdem]

1. I'm with you!!

My favorite part of this:

“Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us."

[SallyMander]

4. Thanks firedupdem!

I loved that line too! Off-topic, but one of my favorite definitions of science is from Judge Jones, who ruled on the Dover PA intelligent design case. He wrote that science limits itself to "natural explanations about the natural world." Once you get into the realm of supernatural expectations, you are no longer doing science. I thought that was a beautifully simple way to put it!

[firedupdem]

2. Kick.. n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

3. At least one progressive blogger in Alaska

is very pleased with the Lubchenco appointment. Read Phil Munger's very informative piece here http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/12/obamas-noaa-appointment-may-have.html

[SallyMander]

5. Thanks Blue_in_AK!

I'm going to go read that now. The reception of Stephen Chu has also been really positive from what I've seen!

[tridim]

6. Love it! He needs a physicist on the team as well.

The LHC is going to be a BIG deal early next year.

[SallyMander]

8. He's got one! Stephen Chu will be Sec of Energy

He is a Nobel-winning physicist! :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Chu

[DCBob]

7. John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco are leading experts on climate change

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's selection Saturday of a Harvard physicist and a marine biologist for science posts is a sign he plans a more aggressive response to global warming than did the Bush administration.

John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco are leading experts on climate change who have advocated forceful government action. Holdren will become Obama's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees ocean and atmospheric studies and does much of the government's research on global warming.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081220/ap_on_el_pr/obama
==========

Global warming/climate change is my "pet" issue and I am very pleased he has chosen people like this. What a change it will be from the Bush anti-science era!

[SallyMander]

9. "What a change it will be from the Bush anti-science era!"

I know, right?? Maybe we can really start dealing with these problems now -- hopefully some of them can still be solved!

Thanks for the link -- there is a nice blog entry about Lubchenko in Blue_in_AK's post above, check it out. :hi:

[DCBob]

10. Wow. I love her already! Nice write up.

Thanks!

[Blue_In_AK]

11. DCBob, please read this

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/12/obamas-noaa-appointment-may-have.html

She sounds like a wonderful choice for this position. I'm really stoked.

[DCBob]

12. Just did. She sounds superb!

Thanks!

[Sebastian Doyle]

13. Sensible choices

You have a serious crisis, such as global climate change, so you appoint people to the team that take the problem seriously. It's the only logical thing to do, and I commend Obama for doing so.

Now is it too much to ask that the same sensible choices apply to foreign policy, and the economy, instead of continuing the same fucked up policies of the last 28 years in both areas.

[SallyMander]

14. This is a huge step in the right direction

:hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Them durn inconvenient truths.

Pesky little things. They keep getting out from under the rugs the republicans sweep them under...man, that's a terrible sentence, but you get the idea :)

:thumbsup:

[SallyMander]

17. Haha... exactly

Once the rug is underwater it'll be too late. :(

:hi:

[Canuckistanian]

16. K&R

Off to the GP.....

[SallyMander]

18. Thanks C!

Your name just cracked me up because it reminded me of "Palin as President"... (now a terrifying possibility that we can put off thinking about for at least four years!)

[applegrove]

19. This is like manna from heaven. I cannot believe we will get to hear quotes

like the above for the next 8 years. We are a lucky, lucky world.

[Clio the Leo]

20. kick NT