Episode 18 – Science Matters 2008

As we rapidly approach November 4th, we were able to talk with Lesley Stone from SEA (Scientists and Engineers for America) to discuss the role of science in the upcoming elections.

Links:

• SHARP Network
• Views from the Experts
• McCain and Obama’s Answers to Innovations 2008
• Candidates’ Forum for Innovation
• Obama’s Responses to Science Questions from Nature.com
• Campaign 2008 (from Physics Today)
• Obama’s Science Advisors (from Wired.com)

This episode is sponsored by Frey Scientific

Frey Scientific has offered science educators quality science products and dependable service for nearly 50 years. Working with leading educators and manufacturers, Frey provides the required equipment and supplies for your science classrooms and laboratories, as well as being leaders in Lab Planning and Renovation. Frey Scientific is part of the School Specialty family of science companies that includes Neo/SCI, Delta Education, and CPO Science.

 

School Specialty Science: Helping educators engage and inspire students of all ages and abilities to learn. To learn more, visit www.freyscientific.com.

 

Preview from the Show:

Science and tech have fueled the American economy to a great extent, and as you talked about in 1957 with Sputnik, we funded science really heavily, and now we haven’t been doing that as much, so there are going to be real changes if America can’t compete on a technological level in the global economy.

We don’t want to put science in its own little ghetto and just pretend that it’s just one single issue, when almost every important issue in the campaign revolves around science – like health, climate change, environment, energy – all these have scientific underpinnings… But we do need to hear about what they think about scientific issues as well, and how they intend to incorporate science into their administration.

I think that there is a tendency for people to focus on their own career path, and I think it’s really important to remember that you’re part of a broader society and that these elections matter to you even if sometimes seems that the relationship between you and the elections is remote – every person, every citizen has a responsibility to find out what their politicians are doing. And the science teachers can really help with that. They can help their students to understand that, they can show their students the SHARP network, where you can easily see the science and tech policy views of the people that represent you, and also really important is urging the candidates to respond to this questionnaire.

Direct download: LOL18.mp3