U.S. Science Policy Swayed by Politics, Group Says
Thu Jul 8, 2004 11:32 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is still packing scientific advisory panels with ideologues and is imposing strict controls on researchers who want to share ideas with colleagues in other countries, a group of scientists charged on Thursday.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report that the administration's policies could take years to undo and in the meantime the best and the brightest would be frightened away from jobs in the National Institutes of Health and other government institutions.

The union, chaired by Dr. Kurt Gottfried, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Cornell University, said more than 4,000 scientists, including 48 Nobel laureates and members of both political parties, had joined the call for "restoration of scientific integrity in federal policymaking."

"I don't think one should simply assume that the problem ... will go away if there is a new administration in office," Gottfried told reporters in a telephone briefing.

"What is happening under this administration is a cultural change. We have to address this cultural change and fix it."