Friday, March 09, 2007

Gagging of scientists

From an article in the SF Chronicle

The federal agency responsible for protecting Arctic polar bears has
barred two Alaska scientists from speaking about polar bears, climate
change or sea ice at international meetings in the next few weeks, a move
that environmentalists say is censorship.


I try in this blog to not get involved in too many political issues - except of course those related to Open Access publishing. I do this because I think Open Access needs support from all sides of the political spectrum and because there are many things about Open Access that are consistent with political views throughout the spectrum. However, the treatment of scientists by the Federal Government just keeps getting worse and worse. Stem Cells. Evolution. Global Warming. Food science. And so on. The feds seem to think that scientific research is another form of spin. Scientists should read this chronicle article and really should start fighting back more.

So from now on I am adding intellectual freedom for scientists as another topic area of my blog.

OH, and thanks to Melinda Simmons at the Moore Foundation for suggesting this for my blog

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