Obama on Science and Technology

With the relegation of GWB to a lame duck, it is appropriate to look to the President-Elect for information on America's future. What do we have to look forward to from the White House after January 20th?

Well, the Obama-Biden Science and technology policy is available here and interesting reading it makes.

High points of the policy include the doubling of federal investment in basic research, in accord with Bushes' America Competes Act. For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology, basic research is primarily exploratory investigation driven by the curiosity of the researcher and is the necessary precursor to applied research. That doesn't make it pie-in-the-sky impractical nonsense; on the contrary basic research frequently provides unexpected new applications of scientific principles which can be developed. In fact, in our current areas of inquiry (notably electronics and biotechnology) basic research often runs hand-in-hand with the development of practical applications.

To be fair, this increase in the budgeting for pure research is a legacy of the Bush Administration, but the fact that this was ratified by Obama is significant; historically Republicans tend to spend more on research than the Democrats do. I'm with Laurence Krauss on this one; it is devoutly to be hoped that this increase in funding will tempt the more promising minds of our current batch of high-school graduates to move toward science and engineering as a career over finance.

What's going to be vital to the fledgling President's science policy however is his choice of scientific advisor. Whatever the choice is going to be, it's going to have to be made early in the administration to allow the advisor to place other scientists in key strategic positions within the various federal agencies and to allow the development of a robust and dispassionate scientific policy. John Marberger wasn't appointed until 10 months or so into the Bush administration, well after the President had made his position on climate change and stem cell research clear. There wasn't really a lot for Marberger to do policy-wise for a lot of his service.

Now, we've already got a fair idea of Obama's opinions on some of the current scientific issues; his response to Science Debate 2008 can be found here. The juicy parts here include a promise to lift the ban on federal funding for stem cell research, support the Recombinent DNA Advisory Committee's recommendations on recombinant genetic engineering and re-establish the NASC.

On the environment, the President-Elect's targets seem to be compatible with those of Governor Schwarzenegger.

Not all is champagne and sunshine, however. Obama's health plan, while an improvement over the current system, isn't such a major revamp of things as they stand. Religiosity remains a de facto, if not a de jure requirement for high political office. A significant minority of the electorate still base their opinion of others on skin colour. Prop 8 was voted in. No major changes in Iraq.

We've got a lot of work to do still to live up to the vision of America and the President-Elect will have his work cut out for him to enact his plans. Congress remains much the same beast which cooperated with GWB's more questionable policies over the past 8 years so it's hard to see how big a practical impact the new administration will have on the nations policies as a whole, especially with his political opponents flinging the dreaded curse-word 'socialist!' at every suggestion made.

It's too big a job for one man, even the chief executive. It ill behooves us to put too much faith in Obama as a magic bullet to fix all of America's ills; it is the responsibility of us all to effect a cure.