Imagine Congress Filled with Scientists Instead of Lawyers

The post Imagine Congress Filled with Scientists Instead of Lawyers appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.

The March for Science, scheduled to take place this Saturday, could be the beginning of a whole new class of politicians. In the view of many, politics has always been the purview of too many lawyers and too many businessmen. Now Trump’s war on science has brought out the scientific community in a way that may change our political landscape.

Shaughnessy Naughton is a chemist, cancer researcher, and the founder of 314 Action. In her conversation with WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman, she talks about her efforts to recruit scientists to run for office.

Who better to counter the epidemic of fake news and alternative facts than data-driven scientists, using proven scientific methods to arrive at sound conclusions?

Naughton, herself a former congressional candidate, explains that all of a sudden scientists are realizing that they cannot just sit on the sidelines, or in their labs or ivory towers. She argues that running for office, both locally and nationally, may be required to keep science a vital part of our democracy.

314 Action, the organizer of this march, is a non-profit that has set as its mission to recruit and train scientists to run for public office.

Will all of this further politicize science? Will political action hurt the credibility of science?  Listen to this week’s podcast and decide for yourself.

Click HERE to Download Mp3.

Full Text Transcript:

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Jeff Schechtman: Welcome to Radio WhoWhatWhy. I’m Jeff Schechtman.

Historically, no matter how deep our political divide, there’ve always been some things we could agree on. Certainly if not policy, then at least a basic set of facts about science, or math, or medicine; empirical data that explains the world we live in, and debate it. But today, even that is threatened in ways not seen since some argued that the earth was flat. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said to one of his colleagues, that he was entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts. That doesn’t seem to be true anymore, so what’s a scientist to do when their basic set of proven assumptions are attacked, challenged, or ignored in the face of overwhelming evidence? Be it climate change, vaccines, or data about our health, the answer may be running for office as the only alternative. We’re going to talk about that today with my guest, Shaughnessy Naughton. She is a chemist and cancer researcher, and the founder of the nationally recognized pro-science political action group, 3-1-4 Action. She is one of the organizers of this weekend’s upcoming March for Science in Washington that will assemble scientists from around the country to rally against the president’s war on science. It is my pleasure to welcome Shaughnessy Naughton to the program. Shaughnessy, thanks so much for joining us.

Shaughnessy Naughton: Yeah, thank you.

Jeff: First of all, tell us a little bit about 3 1 4 Action. What is it, and how did it come to be?

Shaughnessy: Well, I am as you said a chemist by training. I ran for US Congress myself, and one of the observations I had, there’s a real lack of people with scientific and technical background in Congress, but really at all levels of government. And I founded 314 Action to try to help increase those numbers.  And one of my other observations was, it can be very hard to break into politics when you don’t come from a traditional political background. And so with 314, one of the things is, to unite the scientific community and encourage more members to run and get elected to office.

Jeff: Is there danger inherent in this, that by getting more scientists involved in the political process, that it will further cause science to be polarized by politics and have exactly the opposite effect that you would like it to have? 

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