The continued concern of scientists.

IN FEBRUARY 2004 the Cambridge Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced a dramatic development. More than sixty leading scientists and former government officials, among them twenty Nobel laureates, had signed a statement denouncing the administration of George W. Bush for misrepresenting and suppressing scientific information and for tampering with the process by which scientific advice makes its way to government officials. Examples include distorting the science of climate change, quashing government scientific reports, and stacking scientific panels. Eventually fifty-two Nobel laureates, sixty-three national Medal of Science recipients, and 175 members of the National Academy of Sciences, along with thousands of others, would sign the document.

But the attack on science, and the UCS response, continued. At the December 2006 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the UCS announced that thousands of additional scientists and others had joined the campaign to restore scientific integrity to federal scientific programs. At the same time, the UCS released an "A to Z" guide documenting interference in vital programs--such as improving air quality, preventing childhood lead poisoning, and improving prescription drug safety--for the purpose of political gain.

The UCS documents focus on the Bush administration but the attack on science has been much broader. In an editorial last year in Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Editor-in-Chief Donald Kennedy cites examples, in particular letters that then-Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Joseph Barton (R-TX) sent to a number of scientists. Among them were Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Dr. Arden Bement Jr., director of the National Science Foundation; and research professors Drs. Michael E. Mann, Malcolm K. Hughes, and Raymond S. Bradley, who …