War of the Worlds: When Science, Politics Collide
Roger Cone is a microbiologist, not a politician. He struggles with a basic truth: For all the scientific acceptance of evolution, many Americans simply don’t believe it is factually accurate.
And when Tennessee lawmakers passed a measure allowing teachers to question accepted theories on evolution and climate change in the classroom, Cone acted. He and two other scientists wrote an op-ed in The Tennessean last month opposing the bill, which he says “started out as a backdoor attempt to get creationism, or ‘intelligent design,’ taught in the schools.” He fears it will be another black eye for Tennessee — a throwback to the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial,” when teacher John T. Scopes was put on trial for lecturing on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Cone is not alone. The Tennessee controversy is only the latest example of scientists leaving their labs and universities, and clashing with politicians.
A number of battles have played out at the state level: Indiana, for example, recently tried and failed to join Tennessee, Louisiana and Kentucky in passing a law challenging evolution; other states have passed resolutions slamming the scientific consensus on climate change. And the strain has been heightened by comments on the GOP presidential campaign trail: Rick Santorum called global warming a “hoax”; Michele Bachmann accused schools of censorship for not allowing the teaching of intelligent design; and Rick Perry accused scientists of manipulating climate data “to keep the money rolling in.”
“I don’t consider it politics, I just consider it civics,” says Cone, chairman of the department of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “I think scientists have a responsibility to be in the public sphere and to try to communicate and make sure that our kids have a great education in science.”
Alan Leshner, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of Science magazine, says the tension between science and politics is greater than at any time in his scientific career. As a result, he says, scientists have increasingly felt forced to try to set the record straight.
“When scientists see that science is being distorted, they feel compelled to stand up and say, ‘No, that’s not true,’ ” Leshner says.
Ken Whitney, a professor of evolutionary ecology at Rice University in Houston, found himself in a similar situation as Cone five years ago. He was among more than 100 biology faculty members from Texas universities who signed an open letter objecting to the Texas Education Agency’s “neutrality” on evolution and intelligent design. The agency’s science curriculum adviser was subsequently fired.