Seventy-six American Nobel Prize winners endorsed Barack Obama in a letter (PDF) citing the anti-science policies of the Bush Administration:
During the administration of George W. Bush, vital parts of our country's scientific enterprise have been damaged by stagnant or declining federal support. The government's scientific advisory process has been distorted by political considerations. As a result, our once dominant position in the scientific world has been shaken and our prosperity has been placed at risk. We have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy.
Eggs Have Human Rights?
The sexual and reproductive health community awaits the latest attack on science from the Bush Department of Health and Human Serivces, in the form of a "refusal clause" allowing medical professionals to deny contraception to patients based on personal beliefs. The religiously motivated attempts to conflate contraception with abortion, to promote failed abstinence-only policies, and to approve government approval of emergency contraception are just a few examples of how the far-right has attemtped to thwart science in favor of their narrow ideology. They have also denied researchers access to the most promising embryonic stem cells to find cures for many diseases, and at the same time are trying to declare fertilized eggs should have
Stem Cell Video fully human rights.
Newshogger noted:
I'm sure the decision to support Barack Obama was made a lot easier last week when Sarah Palin scoffed at the use of federal money for research using fruit flies. Most sixth graders know the dominant role fruit flies have played in the understanding of genetics, including the understanding of birth defect genetics.
Or, perhaps, it was Ms. Palin's belief that humans and dinosaurs inhabited the earth at the same time, about 6,000 years ago.
Katharine Mieszkowski at Salon noted:
While the letter that the Nobel laureates signed does not actually mention John McCain or Sarah Palin, the chemists, physicists and physiologists can't have been impressed by the GOP candidates' recent scoffing on the campaign trail at a major grizzly bear study and important fruit fly research.
