mstebbins | October 22, 2008We have had a fantastic response to our AVoteForScience YouTube challenge and the press has started to notice. I have done two interviews in the past 24 hours on the effort. If you are a scientist, get your videos explaining who you are voting for and why uploaded to YouTube and don't forget to tag them AVoteForScience so we can find them. I am noticing a lot of physicists uploading videos. Have biologists dropped the ball?
Here are some of the latest videos:
David Palmer an astrophysicist from New Mexico takes aim at John McCain and Sarah Palin's stances on science and endorses Obama.…
mstebbins | October 21, 2008SEA is holding a Presidential forum with representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns duking it out on energy issues. Kurt Yeager, cochair of the McCain California Energy Security Coalition will square off with Dan Kammen, Senior Advisor on Energy & Environmental Policy for Barack Obama. If you are in the Stanford area, you can see it live at 6:30PT, Kresge Auditorium at Stanford University. If not, you can still see it live via webcast HERE.
mstebbins | October 21, 2008A bunch more videos have been added to our playlist and favorites on the AVoteForScience YouTube challenge. Keep up the good work. If you are a scientist, take a moment to tell the world who you are voting for and why. We are still waiting for our first endorsement of McCain from a scientist. C'mon, I know you're out there. We want to hear from you.
Here are some of the latest videos:
Ed Fenimore: Rocket Scientist from New Mexico endorses Obama
Ilya Nemenman: Biophysicist from Los Alamos endorses Obama
Eli Ben-Naim endorses Obama citing scientists leaving the US to work in other countries.…
mstebbins | October 19, 2008A bunch more videos have been uploaded in the SEED Magazine, SEA Action Fund "A Vote For Science" YouTube challenge where we asked scientists to tell the public who they are voting for this election and why. So far we only have videos of scientists who are voting for Obama. However, a new report from The Scientist shows that there are in fact scientists voting for McCain. (I knew we weren't so homogeneous a community.) According to their not-so-scientific-but-really-interesting-nonetheless poll, 56% of scientists plan to vote for Obama, 39% for McCain, 4% for Bob Barr and 1% for Nader. So,…
mstebbins | October 17, 2008The latest video in the Seed, SEA Action Fund, AVoteForScience YouTube challenge is by Dr. Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University. He explains clearly that his view is partially colored by the last 8 years where science has been kicked around pretty badly and clearly spells out why he is supporting Obama rather than McCain. Again, any scientists supporting McCain, speak now. Simple instructions for uploading your videos can be found HERE and our YouTube channel can be found HERE.
mstebbins | October 17, 2008Our latest entry to the YouTube A Vote for Science challenge is by Marine Biologist Mark WestNeat. Dr Westneat is a Curator of Zoology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Director of the Biodiversity Synthesis Center, and Professor at the University of Chicago. He has provided a long list of reasons why he supports Obama. Unlike the other videos, Mark talks about his decision from the perspective of a scientist and as a fisherman and hunter. We will be featuring new videos every day on our YouTube AVoteForScience channel. Check them all out. Each provides a unique perspective. If you are…
mstebbins | October 16, 2008Our first 3 entries in our YouTube video challenge come from and extraordinary and diverse group of scientists including a prestigious computer scientist, an MD/PhD candidate in Missouri and a scientist and ScienceBlogs regular who is voting absentee from Canada. You can watch them all on the AVoteForScience YouTube Channel. Besides being scientists, they are also all voting for Obama. Where are the scientists voting for McCain? Surely there is one (with a video camera.) Bueller?......Bueller?
I was delighted to see our first entry by Ed Lazowska, the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair of Computer…
mstebbins | October 14, 2008All I can say is WOW! Vint Cerf, Google's Chief Internet Evangelist who also happens to be credited with co-founding the Internet, submitted a video to our AVoteforScience YouTube challenge. In it he discusses the importance of net neutrality and endorses Barack Obama specifically because he supports net neutrality (John McCain does not.) Did I say Wow? Upload your entry to YouTube today. Instructions can be found HERE. Don't forget to tag it "AVoteForScience."
mstebbins | October 14, 2008In yesterday's YouTube video posted by Marty Chalfie, he referred to the fact that all three science Laureates for 2008 had endorsed Obama. Now it is official. From the Obama campaign; "With one voice, 65 of the nation's greatest minds, the largest number of Nobel Laureates to ever endorse a political candidate for office, have encouraged the American public to vote Obama on November 4th."
Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien won the prize in Chemistry with for their pioneering work on the use of green fluorescent protein. Yoichiro Nambu won the prize in Physics for his mathematical model, which…
mstebbins | October 13, 2008Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund and ScienceBlogs have teamed up to bring you the AVoteForScience YouTube challenge. Are you a scientist? Tell the world who you are voting for this year. McCain? Obama? None of the above? Upload your YouTube video explaining who you are, who you are voting for and why you are voting for them. Tag your video with "avoteforscience" and we'll favorite it. Make sure to end your video with "My name is [your name] I'm a scientist and I'm voting for [insert your candidates name here]. Simple as that.
We will be featuring prominent scientists from…
mstebbins | October 10, 2008Francis Collins, the former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute and lead on the Human Genome Project has just published an opinion piece in the Virginian Pilot endorsing Barack Obama. Unfortunately the Pilot does not post their guest opinion pieces online, but a good friend in Virginia scanned a copy in for me. It is not a great quality scan, but it is good enough to read.
What is striking to me about it is not just that a rather apolitical scientist of his stature came out to endorse Obama, but that he did it in a Virginia paper with far less profile than he could have…
palmd | October 9, 2008This may ruffle a few feathers, but I've decided to cross-post this one. --PalMD
As a physician, I have a lot of politically conservative colleagues. Much of this stems from our experience with the government. The influence of Medicare helps set prices, which we are not at liberty to change, and affects how we practice. On the other hand, Medicare is usually pretty good at paying its bills---except when it doesn't. If our costs go up, say in increased rent, we can't raise our prices. And if we get together with a group of doctors to try to negotiate fees, it can be considered collusion…
mstebbins | October 8, 2008One of the first things Martin Chalfie wanted to do after learning that he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is endorse Barack Obama for President of the United States. That brings the total number of Nobel Prize winners in science endorsing Obama to 63. Originally 61 winners came out and endorsed Obama, but soon after the release of the letter, Murray Gell-Mann, who won the Prize in Physics in 1969 came forward to add his name.
Chalfie won the prize for his early work on using green fluorescent protein to mark cells. This is by far the largest number of Nobelists to ever endorse a candidate…
palmd | October 7, 2008Well, it's that time again. With the world economy in crisis, and the administration sticking to it's "Everything's gonna be OK" strategy, our candidates are holding a "town hall"-style debate. I live-blogged the last debate, and it wiped me out and pissed off the other people in the room, but the online response was quite positive, so we're gonna try this again.
(An auditorium of undecided voters---why the hell is anyone "undecided"?)
Tom: Intro, with Brokavian gravitas
Friendly greeting. Both appear comfortable, Obama more so, perhaps.
Tom: Econ will be biggest issue
Q to O from bald…
mstebbins | October 6, 2008At the 18 September head-to-head between health advisors from the McCain and Obama campaign that Scientists and Engineers for America hosted at George Washington University, a question on in vitro fertilization completely stumped McCain health advisor Jay Khosla. The Obama campaign surrogate, Dora Hughes, MPH, MD answered it without hesitation.
Frankly, the inability to answer this simple question on a widely used assisted reproductive technology or clarify whether McCain will once and for all lift Bush's ban on use of federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research is deeply disturbing…
mstebbins | October 1, 2008OMG! The LA Times has an article from over the weekend that details a 1997 interaction between a Wasilla resident, Philip Munger, and then Mayor Sarah Palin. Now this is one man's story from a decade ago, but if it is true, then she is officially a worse candidate for VP than Dan Quayle ever was. There has been a lot of talk about Governor Palin's faith, but believing in God is a far cry from believing that man walked the earth with dinosaurs. Obviously Mr. Munger has a bone to pick with the Governor, but the story, if true, disturbs me to the core nonetheless. From the article:
Palin told…
mstebbins | September 30, 2008CBS is ever so slowly releasing bits and pieces of Katie Couric's interviews with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Last night they released the transcript and some of the video of the third part of the interview where Governor Palin addresses several key science and health issues including her opinion of the use of Plan B, on teaching creationism in schools and on the contribution of man to climate change. Unfortunately, her answers were often strange, but there were some moments of relief as well. Below are two excerpts from the interview with highlights added to the good bits. Of particular…
palmd | September 26, 20082100 hrs
This is a bit of an experiment for me. First, I haven't done a lot of live blogging. Second, I don't know whether science will play any part in tonight's debate.
2102
Lehrer is introducing. Looks like McCain showed up...
Lehrer: quoting Eisenhower, re military and econ strength.
Obama: poised, confident. Acknowledges poor economy and personalizes it for average American. Wants oversight of bailout. Wants return on investment. Wants to help homeowners. States "final verdict on 8 years of Bush/McCain deregulation." Calls out to middle class.
McCain: distracts to Ted Kennedy.…
mstebbins | September 26, 2008FYI for everyone. John McCain has recanted his offer not to campaign and postpone the debate tonight. In other words, GAME ON! Tonight's debate is going to focus on foreign policy and national security. Will they discuss some of the big issues that never get discussed in the foreign policy debates.
Here are some questions that me and my colleagues at the Federation of American Scientists came up with earlier this year...
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would ban all nuclear explosions for military or civilian purposes. The United States signed the treaty in 1996, but the Senate…
mstebbins | September 26, 2008This is big news for science. Yesterday, the Obama campaign released their most detailed plan to date for how he will manage US government science and science policy. The 11 page plan (pdf) is a significant improvement on the previous "fact sheet" that they had up, which was severely lacking in detail. Somehow this story got buried by the letter from 61 Nobel Laureates endorsing Obama. (The timing of the two was clearly planned, but I am obviously not the only one who missed it.)
There is a lot of information in the plan, but right off the bat I noticed that he has now committed to…