For the past 20 years, David Goldston has been at the heart of forging US science and environmental policy. His regular Nature column provides a seasoned insider’s take on the interaction between science and politics. His latest article, Making room for dissent (Nature 448, 524; 2007), explores the effect of political dissent on scientific progress.

For now, Congress is likely to move ahead with the Administration’s proposal to double the budgets of key physical science programmes over ten years, while providing more money than requested for other science agencies. And it is poised to pass legislation authorizing the approach called for in the Gathering Storm.

What needs to happen next is one of those rare, but essential periods when Congress is perplexed enough to scan the full horizon for new diagnoses and prescriptions — including some that are yet to be formulated. The next consensus will have to rely less on a reflexive turn to politically safe, time-honoured ideas if the United States is to keep enough high-value jobs to sustain its standard of living.

You can read the collected Nature columns of David Goldston here, and hear him talk about the intersection of science and politics on the Nature podcast.