I recently attended a symposium at Harvard Medical School (HMS) about science issues in the upcoming presidential election. The common theme that emerged from the discussions was the need to educate the public and to get scientists involved in policy making. Anna Kushnir

Nothing exemplifies scientists’ reluctance to participate in policy making and politics as well as a carefully and thoughtfully-planned symposium on Science and the Presidential Election – when it’s attended by no more than 40 or 50 scientists… in a room that can easily seat 300. Tuesday’s symposium at HMS, organized by graduate students in the Science Policy Group, focused on the role of scientists in setting future science policy, as well as the top science and technology issues in current politics and the upcoming presidential election (see the full schedule on the symposium’s website). The symposium, while interesting and well-planned, could have benefited from more audience participation and interaction.

I am afraid that other responsibilities kept me away from attending the first portion of the event, but I was present for the latter two panels, “The Future of science policy,” and “How Scientists Can get Involved in Science Policy.” George Daley, an associate professor at HMS and frequent participant in Congressional hearings on stem cell issues, said that “failing to engage in public policy leaves us in great risk of losing the financial support we [as scientists] depend on.” His experiences and interactions with Congress members revealed to him their lack of knowledge and understanding of basic science issues. That is the reason, he said, why scientists need to be more active in influencing political decisions. Daley was also concerned by the seemingly flagging support for embryonic stem cells in favor of induced pluripotent stem cells, adult cells that can be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells. Stem cells, he said, are definitely a subtext in the current presidential election, and the voices and support of scientists are necessary to influence the decision makers.

While Daley made the need for scientist participation in policy clear, Lesley Stone, the Executive Director of Scientists and Engineers of America (SEA), outlined how scientists can go about getting involved. Stone suggested scientists join trade organizations, talk to friends and others about the issues, in order to “facilitate evidence-based decision making” by both the public and political leaders. Additionally, the SEA website offers opportunities for people to email the 2008 congressional candidates to request answers to seven science policy questions ranging in scope from cost of healthcare to water quality. The website also has a wiki of all current Congress members and their views on the most important science issues in order to aid in voting decisions. If information about your representative is missing, don’t hesitate to fill it out!

Another interesting web-based initiative was described by Jeff Nesbit, Director of Legislative and Public Affairs for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Frustrated with the decline in science coverage by major media outlets, the NSF decided to launch its own science education and outreach website, science360.org. The site will go live in the next 6 weeks and will offer a live-streaming science radio station broadcasting science podcasts contributed by Nature, Discover magazine, and other scientific publications. The site will also have a daily science news service, short videos produced by NSF of leading scientists speaking about their work, as well as articles by scientists written for the general public.

After the panel, I made my way to Mr. Nesbit to ask whether science360 will include a community participation component – it is clear that the site is dedicated to educating the public by broadcasting science news and information, but will they include a feature to ease scientist interaction with the public? Right now that’s not in the plans, he said. Unlike participation in policy making, Nesbit says they have no problem recruiting scientists for the site – they have had an overwhelmingly positive response from scientists to calls for content. Science360 is an excellent initiative in science education and I am really looking forward to seeing it go live. I will post something again once content up.

Equally emblematic of the reluctance of scientists to participate in politics was the response to the following question posed to a panel by one of the event organizers – “How do you incentivize scientists to participate [in policy making]?” The answer? None. Not really, in my opinion. There were some generally encouraging words and a lot of cheer leading, certainly, but nothing to make me nod my head and say, yea, that makes sense.

If you have any ideas of your own on how to encourage scientists to participate in politics, please leave them in the comments.