JANUS, you鈥檒l remember, was the god with two faces, one looking forwards and the other looking back. And he seems to have had a bad influence on scientists, scientific societies and federal science agencies, when it comes to promoting participation among women and minorities in science.
The forward-looking face has led to the creation of numerous programmes designed to encourage under-represented segments of American society to consider a graduate career in science, mathematics, technology or engineering. One of these was rewarded this month by the National Science Board, a federally chartered advisory body that approves funding for science projects. The NSB Public Service Award went to the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science for its creative approaches to getting Latinos and Native Americans (sometimes called American Indians) into science.
At the same awards ceremony the other face of science was on view. The Alan T. Waterman Award, given to an outstanding young scientist, went to neurobiologist Erich Jarvis. He鈥檚 the 23rd male scientist to win the prize, compared with three female winners. The Vannevar Bush Award for public service activities in science and technology went to former National Science Foundation director Erich Bloch, who becomes the 22nd male recipient. Only one woman has won the award. To be fair, Jarvis is a person of colour. But even if the old boy network in science is growing colour blind, it鈥檚 still an old boy network.
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AND that鈥檚 not the only problem on the National Science Board鈥檚 plate. The board consists of 24 members each serving a fixed term of six years. This month, eight of them will complete their terms. The problem is, the Bush administration hasn鈥檛 named their replacements. And naming the replacements is just the first step: the nominees then have to go through FBI background checks, after which they go to the Senate, which must ratify them. That process can take months.
The NSB is also the governing body of the National Science Foundation. Without a functioning NSB, the NSF can鈥檛 make any major decisions about how to allocate its $5 billion budget. With only 16 members, the board may find it hard to achieve a quorum at future meetings, and without a quorum no business can be conducted. Similar situations have occurred in the past, but the Bush administration has demonstrated a special talent for not filling key science posts.
THE US military has been riding pretty high lately, what with successes in Afghanistan, a pro-defence President in the White House and a public in the mood for big guns and sabre-rattling. But the generals at the Pentagon may still have taken on an opponent that鈥檚 just too formidable: endangered animals.
Pentagon brass have been complaining for years that federal laws protecting migratory birds and endangered species of all kinds are undercutting training. As good as virtual reality games are, the 21st-century soldier still needs to know how to dig a foxhole and fire a real howitzer, the brass say.
So the Pentagon wants special exemptions from environmental laws, and that not surprisingly has aroused the wrath of the environmental lobby. Everyone has to play by the same rules, it says鈥攚hile pointing out that the military has always had the right to ask for an exemption from these laws if it鈥檚 in the interests of national security. The military has never asked, yet now it wants to rewrite the laws.
If the Pentagon thinks this will be an easy fight, it鈥檇 best talk to its friends in the oil business. They went down in flames trying to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska against the objections of the eco-lobby.