By Janet Raloff
President Obama addressed the National Academy of Sciences and other dignitaries this morning with a list of new pledges for initiatives to boost science and engineering research. Below: a highlight of those mentioned in his 9 a.m. EDT talk:
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The United States and world are wracked by a series of economic, political and resource problems. “At such a difficult moment,” Obama acknowledged, “there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science. The support for research is somehow a luxury at moments that are defined by necessities. I fundamentally disagree. Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment and our quality of life than it has ever been before.”
That’s one reason the president gave for why the United States “can’t allow our nation to fall behind [in science and engineering fields]. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happened. Federal funding in the physical sciences as a portion of our gross domestic product has fallen by nearly half over the past quarter-century, he said. “And we have watched as scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research politicized in an effort to advance predetermined ideological agendas.