re: #14 jvic

That’s (apparently) your opinion, not mine. I wrote that the scientific elite is part of the national elite. Scientists influence the political process but they are not the ultimate decision makers.

Also the scientific elite has factions and sub-factions; it does not necessarily speak with a single voice. On the contrary, there is competition for resources. As I indicated, the NYT article does not distinguish between a couple of subfields of physics and the whole of the subject.

As for who the scientific elite are, the NYT article mentions some of them. The National Academy of Sciences contains a bunch more, as do the governing councils of various professional societies.

See, this is why I asked for clarification. Your #1 reads like you believe the scientific elite are part of the national elite that runs the country. The fact that there are a bunch of factions argues against them being very influential.

I don’t see a lot of influence by professional scientists in our government. We need more. Science requires more federal money if we want to be competitive.