Holt criticizes Bush on science

Rep. Rush Holt (D–N.J.) began his speech to the joint meeting of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Monday by apologizing for being late.

"This sounds like namedropping," he said, "but I was in a meeting in Washington with Jimmy Carter and Jim Baker."

Holt, whose talk was titled "Standing Up for Science," voiced his "disappointment in the way that the administration has politicized" scientific issues from the teaching of evolution to stem cell research.

Holt, who worked as the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for nine years, said there was a "growing crisis" in the country's understanding and appreciation of science, characterizing the lack of appreciation for research as "disturbing."

He said he was "appalled" by President Bush's recent endorsement of the teaching of the theory of intelligent design — which posits that the existence of a higher being, rather than natural selection, is responsible for biological diversity — in public schools alongside the Darwinian theory of evolution.

"Public school science classes are not the place to be teaching things that cannot be tested empirically and verifiably," he said. "Wolfgang Pauli used to dismiss such statements as, 'It's not even wrong.' "

Holt said the country is based on research and development, adding that when the "tenets of critical thinking ... are weakened in our classrooms, we weaken our nation."

Walid Saad GS, an audience member, said he was "glad to know that the issues that are normally raised by scientists are also being raised by congressmen," adding that scientific issues have largely been neglected by policymakers.

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Chemical engineering professor Jay Benziger, who helped organize the event, said it was unlikely that any audience members would have disagreed with Holt about the importance of teaching science in public schools. But, he said, scientists do disagree about "whether the government or private industry should fund scientific research."

Holt also voiced strong support for taxpayer-funded research, noting that federal expenditures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will amount to many times the annual budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"We need to return to large-scale federal funding for science," he said. "We just dropped $200 billion in the Gulf this week. That would fund the NSF for the next decade and a half ... at a good level."