"Happily, processes are in place to thwart efforts like Smith’s to restrict research to areas that members of Congress might find palatable. In a show of ethical defiance, for example, Marrett refused Smith’s request, arguing on behalf of preserving the important confidentiality of the peer-review process. And without administration support for Smith’s proposed legislation, it is not likely to move through the House anytime soon. So why worry about this? Because this misperception of science and the scientific process is becoming more widespread. It’s also international, with the Canadian government, for example, ordering its National Research Council to perform only research with clear and direct economic impacts. It is disturbing that the very legislators who make up the House Science Committee, which helps oversee the federal scientific enterprise, don’t seem to understand the process by which the enterprise is carried out. While Smith’s proposed legislation would have forced NSF administrators to divine the future, it was based on the presumption that when it comes to priorities for comparing specific scientific research project proposals, Congress, not scientific experts, knows best."
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 18:06:54 +0000
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