How the Republicans Turned Their Back on Science

Spring 2007:The Bush Years

Robert F. Miller

Robert F. MillerNeuroscience, University of Minnesota

On Our Way

Our Modern Dilemma…revealed

by studies of ancient scripts about ancient

empires

Once, long ago, the two ruling political parties of the Empire supported science and scientific research and the Empire prospered.But an evil force emerged from the dark side and transformed one of the ruling parties into an ancient tribe of fierce Goths.The transformed Goth Party became hostile to science and suspicious of scientists…The Goths seized control of the Empire and began to marginalize science and trivialize scientists… They restricted the ability of scientists to explore new ideas and effect public policy on matters of health and the long-term future of the environment. And they suppressed too the expression of ideas and the free exchange of informationThe citizens of the Empire were slow to understand that a great Empire could not be achieved without the support of great science.It proved equally difficult to establish that the Goth attack on science was a direct attack on the Empire itself.

Many feel that the experiences of the

ancient Empire are being replayed in America

today…..

Mainstream Media are beginning to sense that something is wrong…..!

Science has been

downgraded in America!

This is an astonishing thing

to say about America….

Fortunately, we can fix this problem tonight

Meet Doc Brown

De Lorean Time Machine

Doc’s Tool…..

History

A brief account of how we got here………..

The American Research University

On the History of the American Research University in Capsule Form• Before WW II the government did not

significantly support university research• The model for federal research was a WW I

model in which professors were inducted into the army, did research in federal laboratories which were then disbanded at the close of the war and everyone went home

University Research Support Before WW II

• Science with a small “s”• Very few national funding organizations

• Russel Sage Foundation (1907; railroads; $10 M; Social Sciences)

• Rockefeller Foundation (1909; Standard Oil; $50 M->$100 M)

• Carnegie Foundation (1913 steel; $100 M)• Local philanthropy

Vannevar Bush• Office of Strategic Research and

Development (V. Bush; OSRD;independent of NRC)

• National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)

• James Bryant Conant (President, Harvard)

• Karl Compton (President, MIT)

• Frank Jewett (NAS Pres,Director, Bell Labs)

• Richard Tolman (Dean Graduate School, Caltech)

• Committee on Medical Research (CMR, largely NRC Medical Division structure)1890-1974

1944

War research benefit nation

1. Technology transfer

2. Medical Research

3. Federal support for universities4. Federal support training scientists

Endless Frontier• V. Bush’s plan to introduce a

permanent presence of Federal support for research, centered primarily in universities and controlled by scientists just as OSRD (FDR had agreed)

• Emphasis on basic science “disinterested science”

• Proposed a National Science organization as an umbrella under which all federally funded research for science would be administered.

End of WW II

• Pentagon built in WW II made of unreinforced concrete.• Plan was to tear it down after the war but FDR suddenly died

April 1945 (changed everything)• Truman was uninformed about FDR’s plans and sided with

hard-liners (Forrestal/Byrnes vs Simpson/Wallace)• 11 days after FDR died Truman met with Russian Foreign

Minister Molotov (Cold War begins).• James Forrestal/February 1946 George Kennan’s “long

telegram”• “Mr X” in Foreign Affairs July, “Containment” military and

diplomacy

Cold War

• Military-related research in universities began as the dominant theme• Military support of university research would

exceed that of other agencies until 1960• No support for university infrastructure• No support for graduate training• Research activity supported was biased

towards applied research rather than basic

IMPACT OF COLD WAR ON V. BUSH PLAN

Vannevar Bush Plan

OSDR

NDRC CMR

National Science Foundation

All Federally Funded Research

OSDR

NDRC CMR

National Science Foundation

All Federally Funded Research

Vannevar Bush Plan

National Institute of Health

OSDR

NDRC CMR

National Science Foundation

Vannevar Bush meets Truman

NSF delayeduntil 1950

Established

1887

ONR

Military support of university research

A Federal Research Economy was born(NIH, NSF, ONR,AEC)(NASA added later)

Who would be the recipients of the new Federal spending on

research universities after WWII?

Introducing…..the sweet sixteen…

Sweet Sixteen Research Universities

1) University of Minnesota*; 2) Stanford; 3) University of Chicago; 4) Columbia University; 5) University of Illinois*; 6) University of Michigan*; 7) University of California (Berkeley)*; 8) Harvard; 9) Penn; 10) Princeton; 11) Cornell; 12) Johns Hopkins; 13) Yale; 14) MIT; 15) California Institute technology; 15) University of Wisconsin*

*public/state

• Strategy was for sweet 16 to serve as the main recipients of federal revenues

• Universities selected on the basis of # of Ph.Ds awarded and breadth of program

• Peer-review mechanism established to relieve recipients’ fear of bureaucratic takeover of science

Mary Lasker• Played major role in

enhancing the NIH budget through interactions with congressional members and public relations activities

• Helped make the case that medical research had a good political karma

Lasker Award is given each year to basic and clinical researchers. Many Lasker Award winners have gone on to win a Nobel Prize. Mary Lasker died in 1994, but Lasker foundation continues; first Lasker Award 1946

NIH vs NSF FundingNIH

Lobbying done by lay people(Mary Lasker)

Common to see budget cuts restored +

NSF

Lobbying done by scientists(from NAS)

Rare to see budget cuts restored

Budgetgrowth very high

Budget growth normal

NIH became engine of basic biological sciences

Sputnik: October 1957

• Physicist Edward Teller, the patron saint of the hydrogen bomb, said the United States had lost "a battle more important and greater than Pearl Harbor.“

• U.S. News & World Report said the launching ranked alongside nuclear fission in military importance.

• Senator Henry Jackson called the satellite "a devastating blow to the prestige of the United States as the leader in the scientific and technical world."

Sputnik shocked the nation! The Russians are Coming!

Sputnik had nothing to do with the science of space exploration

• Few months after Sputnik I and Sputnik II US launched Explorer I which carried geiger counters and discovered the first of the two Van Allen Radiation Belts

• America never lost its lead in the science of space but lost the propaganda war which determined our reaction to Sputnik

• Kennedy was willing to listen to advisors and use instrumentation for space exploration until Yuri Gagarin first Russian (1961) cosmonaut, followed by US Apollo program Man on Moon (1969)

U.S. Response to Sputnik• NASA formed • Seaborg Report (1960)

• Scientific research should be regarded as an investment• Basic research and graduate education belong together

at every level• Strengthening academic science was “critical for the

national welfare and the responsibility of the federal government

• Universities themselves lacked the means of supporting science, so a partnership between the universities and the national government is essential

• Vannevar Bush’s original plan put into play

Seaborg Report (cont’d)• Called for a doubling of the number of “first rate academic

centers of science.”

The Golden Era of American Research University is born (1958-1968)

• 1958-1968: projected growth of 15%/yr

• Federal funding for research reached its highest % of GNP (0.25% in 1968)

• Greater role proposed for NSF in science funding and regulation*

• Part of Kennedy’s “New Frontier”

Sputnik Stimulation

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0

20

40

60

80

100Total $ % Basic ResearchTotal $ % Applied Research

Tota

l Exp

endi

ture

s ($)

X 1

09

Year

Per

cent

(%)

• 1954 when federal government was supporting one-half of the research in medical schools, just 13 institutions expended more than $1 million and they constituted 50% of the total NIH extramural program $

• 1966 88 institutions received more than $1 million from NIH alone and the 13 largest recipients had only 32% of total NIH extramural program $

• 1960 “magical year” when NIH funding to universities exceeded Department of Defense funding

• less programmatic research

• more basic science research

A few facts…

The birthplace of a Trichotomy

Goldwater Defeat (1964)

Civil Rights southern strategy

Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)

New arena for science (policy)

Reaganism government is the problem

Deregulation (anti-science, anti-intellectualism, anti-ismsReligious right into politics)

WW II NIH vs NSF

Federal Funding

Sputnik

Nuclear Physics to Biology

NIH Focus

Expansion of research universities

Free Market Economy

Vietnam WarVoila! A new

Republican Party is born

“Not until I saw the whole story laid out in Chris Mooney’s thoroughly researched and documented book did I realize the enormity of what is happening. Reading this important book won’t make you feel good, but it will make you wiser.”Robert Park author ofVoodoo Science

International survey “Do you accept validity of evolution.”

But, the pursuit of abortion breast cancer relationship shows religious right intrusion into science

William R. SteigerSpecial Assistant to HHS

Representative WHO board

Blocked CDC/NIH endorsement of 2003 WHO/FAO Rpt

Revamped US WHO delegation include Right to Life

Told CDC/NIH scientists not to talk on tobacco/nutrition

Alienated AIDS community emphasis on abstinence

Downgrade UN/WHO research and US

scientistswho participate

How to diminish scientific input into government policies

Abolish Agency OTA ESA

Change Science Standards ESA

Attack scientists and science

Data Quality Act(Center for Regulatory Effectiveness)

(Jim Tozzi)

Jan 2007 Bush policy change on regulation

1995 Gingrich Congress

Suppress Scientists (UCS)

1 Barry Goldwater

2. Richard Nixon

3. Dick Cheney

4. Margaret Thatcher

5. Friedrich Hayek

6. Milton Friedman

7. George W. Bush

Ronald Reagan

Lemuel Boulware

But as the Empire and its research universities struggled for their identity in the new, harsh world of the Goths..Indeed at the very darkest moment of the Empire, the citizens undertook an act of courageous unison and forced the Goths to release their death grip as rulers This sudden release from tyranny exposed the Goths for their selfish scheming, profiteering and the general malfeasance of their actions.By unanimous decree, the Goth Party was ruled an unconstitutional organization for its deceptive, destructive and self-serving actions against the government of the people. A universal justice decree was issue from the Hague and declared, in a unanimous decision, that the Goths would be banned from the Empire, exported by a NASA space shuttle, to a newly identified galaxy where they would live for the remainder of their lives on the island of Katrina on the planet of Abu Ghrab.The Empire was able to recover and resume its global leadership in the development and application of science for the benefit of humanity.

The End…

…or is it the beginning?

Sam Harris’ book“End of Faith”

“We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the Book of

Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the

faithful for millennia—because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and

nuclear weapons.”

THE VIETNAM WAR

OSDR

NDRC CMR

National Science Foundation

All Federally Funded Research

Vannevar Bush Plan

Vannevar Bush Plan

OSDR

NDRC CMR

National Science Foundation

All Federally Funded Research

What went wrong?• 1962 Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

• Focused on DDT (eventually banned)• Stimulated environmental awareness• “Better living through chemistry” had limits • Evoked a strong attack from chemical industry• One chemical company tried to prevent publication

of the book• Kennedy requested PSAC (Presidential Advisory

Committee) report on pesticides which confirmed Carson’s conclusions

• Science suddenly entered into a new arena…

From an interview with Rachel Carson before her death in 1964:

"Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because wehave now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature,and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself…[We are] challenged asmankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not ofnature, but of ourselves."

And Voila, a new Republican baby was born

The Counter Revolution • We don’t like the message therefore let’s kill the

messenger– Downgrading environmentalism– Eliminating science advisory functions

• OTA (disbanded under Newt Gingrich congress in 1995)– Mainstream science is the enemy (“junk science”)– Fringe science (usually funded by industry) (“sound

science”)– Because science cannot say or predict with certainty

its conclusions are invalid

ESA=Endangered Species Act

Eliminate OTA,

New right-wing support

groups

Landmark Legislation

Through 1990s

Republicans tried to eliminate

ESA, but too well

supported

Data Quality Act“junk science”

Vs “sound science

1. ESA is passed (1973)

Too much regulation

!

Gut ESA(Gingrich

Republicans)

Attack studies and scientists

themselves