Just had a cool, educational experience

[MountainLaurel]

I'm attending the American Library Association annual conference this weekend in DC, and today I attended a session on the increasing politicization of science and health information, led by Dr. Susan Wood, the former director of the FDA's Office of Women's Health. She resigned in protest after the FDA Commissioner stepped in and made a decision about offering emergency contraception OTC that defied all of the scientific evidence on the issue. I was just in awe of this woman and her integrity.

And more than a little bit frightened about some of the examples she gave about the increasing push of politics into science, such as researchers who were told to change the abstracts for their grant projects so they didn't include keywords like "AIDS prevention," so as not to draw attention from certain parties who might oppose their work (while it also prevents people who need that information from later finding it). The Union of Concerned Scientists has been working on the issue of political interference in science and has a Web page of resources dedicated to it: http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/.

[Kerrytravelers]

1. The level of political and religious disruption into science is terrifying.