USA benötigen ein 'wissenschaftliches Weißes Haus'

Die Vereinigten Staaten müssten sich ihren Pflichten als weltweite Führungsspitze in Wissenschaft und Technologie erinnern, sagte der Vorsitzende der American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) David Baltimore im Wall Street Journal.

„We need a president who moves science back into the White House. Today we do not have a presidential science adviser and there is no office of science in the White House,“ writes Baltimore in his opinion piece entitled ‚We need a Science White House‘, published on 17 April.

In this piece, he deplores the lack of interest of the current main presidential candidates in science issues, as all three – Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain – declined an invitation to debate and explain to voters how they will ensure that America continues to be a world leader in science.

Protecting that future starts with „understanding that much of the wealth in this country comes from scientific research and technological innovation“, continued Baltimore, professor of biology and president emeritus at the California Institute of Technology.

Baltimore, who also won the Nobel Prize in biology in 1975, particularly urged the US to do more to retain its position as a world leader in biotechnology. „America cannot simply assume its lead in science will continue,“ he warned.

He argued that in recent years the science community has been „starved“ of the resources it needs and that convincing bright students to become scientists has become much more challenging than before, namely due to a lack of grants to carry out research.

The Noble Prize winner stressed the need to fund the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) created in 2006 – an initiative aimed at bolstering the study of science in high schools which has not received funding – and to double the National Science Foundation’s budget for basic research. 

He also underlined the need to pay special attention to health research and to generously fund science at all levels to ensure that the US stays in a leadership position in areas like biotechnology, military preparedness, electronics and communications.