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In recent years, with the rise of social media, many more scientists are becoming public communicators. In politicized fields such as climate science, these communications can attract disproportionate attention. The author argues that public statements in such a situation are inevitably advocacy for some position, view, or outcome. However, rather than suggesting that scientists avoid advocacy in a misplaced attempt to remain objective, he recommends that scientists be explicit about the combination of values and science that drives their views, and discusses the ways scientists can ensure that their advocacy remains responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which banned atmospheric nuclear testing, is one of the most powerful treaties regarding nuclear weapons ever passed. This legislation was pushed forward by the Kennedy Administration following the publicization of scientific and medical tests that warned readers about the introduction of man‐made radioisotopes into the bones and bodies of American infants. These scientific and medical tests were performed, publicized, and analyzed by a combination of scientists, concerned mothers, and physicians who respectively organized between 1958 and 1961. Each of these "medical activist" groups worked together during the early Cold War and was able to influence the Kennedy administration, who encouraged their involvement and even partially credited it with the garnishing of public support for the treaty. This multi‐constitutent response to the dangers of radioisotopes offers a window into the nexus of Cold War era concerns over national security, scientific and technological advances, and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs on technological innovation as of April 2019. Topics covered include U.S. politicians with STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine) backgrounds, the European Union's Quantum Technologies Flagship initiative, and blockchain technology.

The article features the academic scientists as independent, important people who are influential in public policymaking. Since World War II scientists have played an important part in shaping national policies both in the civilian and military sectors of the federal government. It is assumed that these people are uniquely independent as compared to someone from private industry or from some government agency where there are clearly recognized vested interests to be served. Most top science advisors to the federal government are no strangers to the corporate boardroom. It is concluded in the article that a majority of the elite academic science advisers in Washington have been captured by the large corporations.

Author(s): Brian Owens Author Affiliations: Demonstrators at a March for Science rally in Ottawa, Canada. [see PDF for image] Credit: David Kawai/Bloomberg/Getty Photo of demonstrators during the March for Science [...], Erratic funding for basic research, coupled with concerns that science has fallen down the priority list for politicians, has contributed to a shift in researchers' attitudes to lobbying. Erratic funding for basic research, coupled with concerns that science has fallen down the priority list for politicians, has contributed to a shift in researchers' attitudes to lobbying.

Author(s): Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, Blake McShane Author Affiliations: Illustration by David Parkins Scientists rise up against statistical significance When was the last time you heard a seminar speaker claim [...], Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, Blake McShane and more than 800 signatories call for an end to hyped claims and the dismissal of possibly crucial effects. Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, Blake McShane and more than 800 signatories call for an end to hyped claims and the dismissal of possibly crucial effects.

The article presents a discussion about the role of scientists in public policy formation given at a meeting in December 1959 sponsored by the American Political Science Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Policy-making has been defined as a decision which involves someone or group of individuals on a certain course of action. Scientists have two aspects of the in the major trend towards policy making based on facts including as the advisory and committee consultant system and being the guardians and producers of the facts. However, their role in policy formation includes providers of facts to identify the unknown and to improve the process of decision-making by way of direct research.

The article presents an interview with Senator Brien McMahon, chairman Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. When asked about what areas the Bulletin should take active participation, he refers to the significant contribution that scientists can give in helping Congress understand the role of the National Science Foundation. He believes it is only on the basis of seniority that a position should be filled in. Moreover, he considers that scientists can be effective statesmen.

The article presents a discussion on several aspects of the career of a scientist in the light of loyalty investigations and political control. The author argues that the work of a scientist is objective at best, therefore a free exchange of ideas supported by verified facts is essential to their effectiveness. However, scientists in the atomic field who wield significant information crucial to the security of nations and states may be subjected to scrutiny by authorities. Loyalty programs infringe the objectivity of a scientific work and have extinguished scientific curiosity to a significant degree.

I FIRST ENCOUNTERED THE RADICAL LEFT'S FLIRTATION with demagoguery in the 1990s when I was asked to teach in an interdisciplinary program that brought professors together from a bevy of [...]

Partisans in mediated conflicts usually perceive hostile news media, anticipate undesired media effects, and intend to engage discursively. It is hypothesized that hostile media perceptions also encourage polarizing communication. This is tested for scientists involved in a politicized science dispute. German climate scientists (n = 131) firmly believe in anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Yet not all dismiss alternative hypotheses altogether. Results indicate that the more certain climate scientists are of AGW, the more they perceive that the news media downplay AGW and presume that the media nourish politicians' doubts about it. This explains their justifications of overstatements of scientific findings in public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using MacKendrick (2017) as a springboard, this essay explores the March for Science as an example of social mobilization. I lay out some concerns regarding the use of this tactic as a response to attacks on science and suggest some ways sociology could contribute to the development of more efficacious actions to address the denigration of scientific knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her recent piece, MacKendrick (2017) asks whether we are experiencing a “new wave of science activism” and outlines various visible and vocal forms of political action taken by scientists in recent months. Coming from a slightly different perspective, this piece looks at scientists as part of the broader Resistance—people working individually and in collectivities to challenge the Trump agenda. Building on analysis of data collected from a random sample of participants from the Washington, DC, March for Science, which took place in April 2017, I explore how participants at the March for Science compare to a broader sample of participants in the Resistance. Although they have some unique characteristics, my findings show that there are few statistically significant differences between participants in the March for Science and others participating in the Resistance. I conclude this piece by discussing the implications of these findings on scientists in the Resistance and science activism more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific community is increasingly called upon to provide scientific advice to policy-makers (de Kerckhove, D. T., Rennie, M. D., and Cormier, R., 2015, EMBO Reports, 6, 263-6). However, scientists' perceptions about political involvement vary based on their individual beliefs, values, and backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptual factors that are associated with US nanoscientists' perceptions about political involvement. To examine this, we analyze data from a 2011 mail survey of leading US nanoscientists. Our results indicate that the scientists are generally supportive of involvement in political debates. Yet, we find some differences across scientists with respect to their perceptions about political involvement. For example, Caucasian respondents are more supportive of scientists' political involvement than their peers. Also, scientists with higher risk perceptions of nanotechnology are more likely to support political involvement. In addition, scientists who pay more attention to the wishes of the public are more likely to support scientists' involvement in political debates. Lastly, scientists' degree of religious faith is inversely associated with the likelihood of agreeing with their political involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Scientists in Politics," by Bentley Glass in the May 1962 issue.

The article profiles scientist running for office in U.S. Congress in 2018 as Democrats including Chrissy Houlahan in Pennsylvania, Sean Casten in Illinois, and Kim Schrier in Washington.

John Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) constitutes a powerful tool for understanding the policy process, and more specifically, agenda-setting, through three separate streams: problems, policies and politics. This article argues that the MSF would benefit from further development of the problem stream. It introduces a clearer conception of agency into the problem stream by suggesting the inclusion of the problem broker. The problem broker is a role in which actors frame conditions as public problems and work to make policy makers accept these frames. The problem broker makes use of knowledge, values and emotions in the framing of problems. The use of these three elements is seen as a prerequisite for successful problem brokering -- that is, for establishing a frame in the policy sphere. Other important factors are: persistence, access to policy makers, credibility and willingness. Problem brokers also need to know who to talk to, how and when in order to make an impact. The context, in terms of, for example, audience and national mood, is also crucial. The inclusion of the problem broker into the MSF strengthens the analytical separation between streams. According to Kingdon, policies can be developed independently from problems. The MSF, therefore, enables a study of policy generation. The inclusion of the problem broker, in the same sense, makes it possible to investigate problem framing as a separate process and enables a study of actors that frame problems without making policy suggestions. The MSF is, in its current form, not able to capture what these actors do. The main argument of this article is that it is crucial to study these actors as problem framing affects the work of policy entrepreneurs and, thereby, agenda-setting and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHEN BARACK OBAMA PROMISED IN HIS 2009 inaugural address that 'we will restore science to its rightful place,' he invoked not so much a debate as a set of widely [...]

INTRODUCTION Public administration scholars often associate increased public participation in policy implememation with the advancement of democratic values (deLeon and deLeon 2002; Irvin and Stansbury 2004). Likewise, scholars engaged in [...]

Abstract The unpublished work of Peirceian philosopher and cultural studies theorist Arnold Shepperson is the subject of this article. A background to the life and work of Shepperson is offered [...]

Although many policy process and diffusion theories follow the premise that scientific and technological knowledge plays a crucial role in a wide variety of policy fields, very few empirically assess the impact that institutional and process-relevant factors may have on the position of science within a process. The present study addresses the question of what role science plays in policy processes. To answer this, we apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and investigate three complementary assumptions using a qualitative comparison of four cases: the ACF claims that scientific experts can take very different positions in the policy process, depending on how conflictive or consensus-oriented the relations among actors and coalitions are within a so-called policy subsystem. Put differently, the type of subsystem impacts on the position of science within the process. The results show that subsystem-specific factors impact upon whether scientific representatives act at the periphery of a process or as policy brokers seeking feasible policy solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the two decades before the turning point in Copernicus's personal and scientific development in 1510, he had experience of political activity which has been largely ignored by the existing Copernicus literature but part of which is reconstructed in outline in this paper. Given the close linkage between politics and astrology, Copernicus's likely reaction to astrology is re-examined here. This reconstruction also suggests that the turning point in 1510, when Copernicus left his post as secretary to his uncle Lucas Watzenrode the prince-bishop of Warmia, was not only linked to Copernicus's first version of his heliocentric theory in the Commentariolus, but also to major political setbacks being experienced by Watzenrode during these years, and with the publication of Copernicus's translation of the Letters of Theophylactus Simocatta. Some of these considerations contribute to maintaining the view that Copernicus and his work were in several respects exceptional. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Author(s): Daniel Cressey Ahead of a UK election that will decide who leads the country's exit negotiations with the European Union, a remarkable consensus has emerged among the main national [...]

It is the best and worst of political times for science. As the United Kingdom approaches its 8 June general election, all three major national political parties have pledged a [...]

Author(s): Mark Zastrow When South Korea's Constitutional Court removed scandal-ridden President Park Geun-hye from office on 10 March, citizens rejoiced in the streets - and many scientists breathed a sigh [...]

Author(s): Andrew Isaac Meso Author Affiliations: Another diversity problem -- scientists' politics According to your poll before the US presidential election (see Nature 586, 654; 2020), the political leaning of [...], Letter to the Editor

This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison management in Wood Buffalo National Park. It questions the philosophical assumption that science is inherently tied to the control and management of nature by state and economic actors. The paper closely examines four distinct periods in the history of wildlife science in the park to argue that zoologists, ecologists and veterinarians have played diverse and contradictory roles in the debates over northern bison management. Though the historical record reveals many examples of scientists who accepted an intensive managerial approach to bison conservation, many other wildlife scientists working in Wood Buffalo National Park have, in fact, resisted the utilitarian and productionist emphasis that has been promoted by administrators working within the Canadian government. The paper concludes that the practice of wildlife ecology in Wood Buffalo Park has been a diverse and heterogeneous endeavour reflecting different disciplinary, institutional and ideological divisions within the field.

The article looks at archaeologist Eudald Carbonell, with a particular focus on the different scientific, social, and political roles he has played during his career. The author discusses Carbonell's self-identification as a member of a peripheral scientific community. It is suggested that Carbonell's career illustrates the medialization and commodification of science and scientists. Details on his role as the co-director of the Atapuerca hominid site in Northern Spain are presented. Other topics include scientific colonialism, communism, and Carbonell's views on Spanish politics.

Science and technology (S&T) policy studies has explored the relationship between the structure of scientific research and the attainment of desired outcomes. Due to the difficulty of measuring them directly, S&T policy scholars have traditionally equated 'outcomes' with several proxies for evaluation, including economic impact, and academic output such as papers published and citations received. More recently, scholars have evaluated science policies through the lens of Public Value Mapping, which assesses scientific programs against societal values. Missing from these approaches is an examination of the social activities within the scientific enterprise that affect research outputs and outcomes. We contend that activities that significantly affect research trajectories take place at the levels of individual researchers and their communities, and that S&T policy scholars must take heed of this activity in their work in order to better inform policy. Based on primary research of two scientific communities-ecologists and sustainability scientists-we demonstrate that research agendas are actively shaped by parochial epistemic and normative concerns of the scientists and their disciplines. S&T policy scholarship that explores how scientists balance these concerns, alongside more formal science policies and incentive structures, will enhance understanding of why certain science policies fail or succeed and how to more effectively link science to beneficial social outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physicians and scientists dominated the first generation of nationalists in at least three East Asian colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the Philippines under the Spanish and United States' regimes, the Dutch East Indies, and the Japanese territory of Taiwan. There is substantial evidence that, in each place, decolonization was yoked to scientific progress—not only in a practical sense, but symbolically too. The first generation to receive training in biological science and to become socialized as professionals used this education to imagine itself as eminently modern, progressive, and cosmopolitan. Their training gave them special authority in deploying organic metaphors of society and state, and made them deft in finding allegories of the human body and the body politic. These scientists and physicians saw themselves as representing universal laws, advancing natural knowledge, and engaging as equals with colleagues in Europe, Japan, and North America. Science gave them a new platform for communication. In the British Empire, for example in India and Malaya, medical science also proved influential, though it seems lawyers cognizant of precedent and tradition more often dominated decolonization movements. This essay will examine how scientific training shaped anti-colonialism and nationalism in the Philippines and the East Indies, concluding with a brief comparison of the situation in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses philosopher Antonio Gramsci and the implications of his theories for modern historians of science. Particular focus is given to his ideas concerning cultural hegemony and intellectuals. According to the author, examining Gramsci's thought can help science historians to rethink processes of science communication such as teaching and popularization and to examine their own roles as academic experts. Details related to the political aspects of science history, and to leftist and radical science historians, are presented. Other topics include popular science, science historiography, and theorist Edward Said's concept of Orientalism.

One of the original objectives of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) was to shed light on the role of science in policymaking. The ACF depicts subsystem scientists as political actors just like any other. Unfortunately, science has never become a major theme of research within the framework and, as a consequence, its role in policymaking remains under-theorized, leaving ample room for interpretation. This article seeks to explore the validity of three propositions about the role of science in policy. The first two are derived from the ACF: (i) the capacity of scientists to provide credible advice is affected by the harshness of the political debates dividing the policy subsystem; and (ii) agreement among scientists is just as common as among other groupings of policy actors. The third is derived from an 'error costs' argument: (iii) Disagreements among scientists are even more pronounced than disagreements among other policy actors. Using the results of a survey of policy actors in 17 biotechnology subsystems, this article finds support for the first and third propositions. Indeed, scientists' participation in political divisions might even be underestimated by the ACF. The article concludes with attempts to clarify the role of scientists within the ACF, including discussions of ambiguity regarding the role of professional forums and of scientists in between-coalition learning within policy subsystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late-nineteenth century food production and trade were greatly transformed. Changes in the food chain gave rise to new problems connected with food safety and food quality, which caused new controls to be introduced throughout Europe. In this paper I will contribute to ongoing debates by focusing on the regulation of saccharin in an agrarian city in the south of Europe, Valencia. The laboratory-made sweetener was introduced into the food market at the turn of the century, becoming highly controversial shortly afterwards. Several local groups of players got involved in this dispute. The sugar industry was not only an important stakeholder in the passing of some specific laws that were to constrain the use of saccharin, but also the main driver of regulation, primarily in periods when saccharin could become a serious competitor and reduce the sector’s profit. Furthermore, the combined work of the sugar industry and the municipal laboratories was essential for the implementation of regulations. It was in such municipal laboratories that scientists played a main role in regulation. My paper will address the commercial disputes linked to the use of saccharin and the limited role of science and scientists in its control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world of nineteenth-century educators Charles Ange Laisant occupies a special place. Laisant's training, which was that of the French elite, opened up an administrative career but at the same time he continued to work and publish in the subject area of mathematics. His research demonstrates that he was clearly an accepted member of the scientific world, and he met the most eminent mathematicians of his day. Laisant played a major role in structuring the mathematical community, both nationally and internationally. He participated prominently in the battle that led to a change in the status and teaching of science in many countries in the early twentieth century. He is also one of those individuals who dedicated themselves to the renewal of pedagogy and to the goals of the new education. Yet, Laisant is still largely unknown; perhaps because of the profusion of his activities and interests he remains beyond the limits of traditional analysis. The author has chosen here, after retracing Laisant's life in all its diversity, to focus on the profound unity of thought that characterised his mind. Laisant's life as an educator allows us to understand how politics, science and teaching were inextricably linked, and to witness how personalities so diverse, even opposing, could come together to pursue common goals of educational reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) news briefs. Members of AIBS met with the U.S. Congress to discuss the importance of federal investments in scientific research. Registration is open for the Second Annual Biological Sciences Congressional District Visits Event. AIBS members wrote to the U.S. Science and Technology Policy regarding U.S. President Barack Obama's grand challenges of the 21st century.

Today, science and scientists as experts no longer hold sway as unquestioned authoritative sources of objective information in many policy debates. This has led to growing frustration on the part of government officials and scientists over their inability to have science exert as meaningful a role as they think appropriate in the consideration and selection of policy alternatives. Given this development, what can be done to restore or otherwise ensure that the appropriate science and scientists are integrated into the policy process so that they matter to policy outcomes? There is general agreement that traditional top-down, one-way (from scientists to others), linear models for conceptualizing the role of science and scientists in the policy process are not capable of capturing the changed political, social, and “scientific” realities of the contemporary policymaking context. Many have gravitated to the concept of civic science/scientists as a new and improved model. Yet, despite clear progress in reconceptualizing the role of science in the policy process, there are gaps in the literature when it comes to actual applications of civic science. As McNie correctly notes: “it is essential that we develop a more robust understanding of experience and practical experiments regarding how relationships [and institutions] are constructed and managed across the science-society boundary” (p. 29). This research develops lessons for civic science in the policy process by exploring an innovative collaborative governance effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries and the Shared Strategy for Salmon Recovery in Puget Sound (Washington). The integration of science into the salmon recovery process in this case relied on a series of actions that the Technical Recovery Team (TRT) took to bridge the traditionally separate science and policy spheres in order to increase the certainty of science impact, specific steps taken to establish and maintain the TRTs role as an authoritative, credible source of science, and the embrace of a results-oriented, adaptive learning approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy policy making is commonly seen as a sector dominated more by experts and technocrats than politicians. Regulation of Finnish energy policy, which was traditionally characterized by state-centeredness and detailed governmental control, was step by step annulled in the mid-1980s on, and a deregulation policy was introduced. The return of regulation can be timed to in the beginning of the twenty-first century, being the result of the global debate and measures dealing with climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the changes of operational environment have transformed the power structure of Finnish energy policy making and whether the key actors constitute a coherent energy elite in terms of attitudinal unanimity and interaction networks. Methodologically the study was based on three sets of elite interview data collected in 1987, 1997, and 2009 and a postal survey conducted among the citizenry in 2007. The major finding was that despite fundamental changes in the operational environment the power structure of the energy sector policy making has been fairly stable from 1987 to 2009 and the old cohesive energy elite is still in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an exploration into the American scientific response to the socio-political campaigns of the Soviet agriculturalist Trofim Lysenko and the intellectual culture of the early Cold War in the U.S. regarding the relationship between professional societies and contemporary political controversies. Details are given highlighting the causes and influence of Lysenkoism, the general resistance to the spread of its ideology by the U.S., and the role of the Genetics Society of America (GSA) within the public sphere. Discussion is offered focusing on the dynamics of scientists and their personal or professional involvement in politics during the mid 20th century.

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