Many policy makers recognize the need for input from scientists and have instituted various means for obtaining it. The National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council regularly constitute committees and produce reports to advise the government on scientific issues. Scientists have advised the President of the United States for more than 50 years, and some of that advice led to the system of federal support for scientific research and education that we have today. Federal and state agencies throughout the country involve scientists in decision making, but often these agencies need more scientists than they can attract to government positions.

One example is the U.S. Department of State, where George H. Atkinson, Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State, has recently expanded the number of Science and Diplomacy fellows. Earlier this year Secretary Colin Powell announced five winners of Thomas Jefferson Science Fellowships (1). These new fellows joined more than 40 others—a number that has quadrupled since 2000—to advise State Department personnel and learn first-hand how science and diplomacy reinforce each other. Both scientists and diplomats, in Secretary Powell’s words, “seek to apply the best knowledge we have to the most significant challenges we face”. The Thomas Jefferson Fellows are tenured faculty from research universities and are expected to bring back to their universities knowledge gained through interactions with State Department personnel and issues.

Another example is the importance of good chemical measurements in creating good policies. Larry Faulkner describes how chemical information informs public policy. Faulkner also delineates several important differences between the methods of science and the methods of politicians. Scientists can concentrate on a problem and work with it long enough to achieve near consensus, but politicians have deadlines and must go with what they know when decision time comes. Scientists attempt to examine problems from many angles and seek to draw conclusions based on all good data that are available, but politicians are much more likely to pick and choose which data to apply and may base decisions on a single study that agrees with what they want to do. These cultural differences greatly affect discourse among scientists and politicians. Faulkner recommends that to become more effective in policy debates scientists must maintain public confidence in scientific integrity, be proactive in presenting policy information, improve communication with policy makers, and avoid partisanship on the part of scientific societies.

The importance of communication among scientists and those unfamiliar with science can be illustrated by a story told by a scientist who works in a governmental agency. When asked whether there had been situations in which he felt that his presence in government had affected a decision that was important to science, the scientist described a meeting to discuss interpretation of a law intended to prevent aid to citizens of nations such as Iran and Cuba with which trade is embargoed. The proposed interpretation of this law would have prevented editing or peer reviewing of scientific papers submitted to U.S. journals from such nations. (This Journal had one such paper that was held up for several months before we knew whether our reviewers and editors might be prosecuted for recommending to the author how to improve the manuscript. Several ACS journals had significant numbers of manuscripts similarly in limbo.) Among more than two dozen government personnel debating this issue, only one—the scientist in question—had had any experience with peer review. The others would have made a decision that had significant impact on science without the background necessary to understand the issue. Without a scientist present to explain what the decision would mean, a much poorer decision might have resulted.

There is no question that a scientific education is an important preparation for many more careers than just scientific ones, but our words and actions often imply otherwise to students. Of course we should be pleased when students choose the same career we did, but there is much benefit in pointing out and even encouraging them toward many other careers in which scientific background would serve them well. One way to make this happen is for us to learn more about such careers ourselves. There are many opportunities to serve on local boards or advisory groups that need scientific input. Opportunities also abound at the state and federal levels, such as the Thomas Jefferson Fellowships already described. Becoming involved in such work not only benefits government and society, it also broadens our perspectives and helps us inform students about possibilities they might not otherwise consider. We and our students have a much greater range of opportunities to enhance society by applying our scientific knowledge than any of us may have thought. Let’s take advantage of these opportunities and encourage our students to do likewise.

Literature Cited

1. Announcement of the 2004–2005 Winners of the First Jefferson Science Fellowships (accessed Dec 2004).