Description:

Title: What The 2014 Election Results Mean For Science 

Speaker: Michael Lubell, CUNY/APS

Abstract:

Voters sent Washington a strong message on November 4: We don’t trust you! With Harry Reid (D-Nev.) leading the Senate and Barack Obama occupying the White House, Democrats bore the brunt of the public’s ire. When Congress convenes next year, Republicans will control the Senate and have their largest majority in the House since the days of Herbert Hoover. Despite early pledges from the president and the Republican congressional leaders to work together, there is scant evidence they will do so. Unfortunately, science is likely to be caught up in the hyper-partisan shoot out that will be the precursor to the 2016 presidential election. Scientists will have to take their case to the public and in doing so avoid being labeled part of a “privileged elite” that is out of style in an era of populism.

If Francis Fukuyama is correct that political dysfunction will be the norm for years to come [“America in Decay,” Foreign Affairs,Sept./Oct. 2014], public engagement will have to become part of the everyday life of every scientist. Today, as the public sees it, iPads, iPhones, MRI machines and the Higgs particle are gifts from Jobs or gods rather than the products of inspiration and the collective creativity of a devoted community of scientists and engineers whose success is tied to taxpayer support. Getting that truth out will take time and effort, but the health of American science and the future of the nation depend on it.

Host: Bill Halperin

Speaker Schedule

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, colloquium