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Radio 3’s flagship arts programme until 2013. Over 350 editions available in the archive.

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Night Waves: Science under Barack Obama

Science under Barack Obama

20/01/2010

BBC Radio 3 - Night Waves, Science under Barack Obama

Philip Dodd and guests assess science in America under Barack Obama.

Philip Dodd and guests assess science in America under Barack Obama, one year after his inaugural pledge to 'restore science to its rightful place'.

Philip Dodd presents an edition of Night Waves dedicated to assessing science in America under Barack Obama. 

One year ago today Barack Obama's inaugural address pledged that "We will restore science to its rightful place...our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions - that time has surely passed'. 

These words brought delight to many in the science world and provoked anger amongst others. Under President Bush science in America had become a hotly contested subject with accusations of inappropriate political interference, scepticism of climate change science was widespread and federal funding for stem cell research restricted on religious grounds. 

Obama had made many science-related promises on the campaign trail, so a year on how comfortably does science sit in the American landscape? Had the US lost touch with the rest of the scientific world as some claimed, and has that ground been made up by the new administration? In a year that has been dominated by the road to Copenhagen's Green summit, has anything changed? How much political independence exists today?

Philip Dodd is joined by a roundtable of guests who have been keeping a close eye on developments in this edition of Night Waves dedicated to Science under Obama:

Stewart Brand - author of the newly published Whole Earth Discipline
Dr Janet Rowley - human geneticist at the University of Chicago
Chris Mooney - author of The Republican War on Science and Unscientific America
Reverend Robert Sirico - founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
Professor Jared Diamond - Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel: How Human Societies Fail
Oliver Morton - Energy and Environment Editor for The Economist
Dr Brent Blackwelder - President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth, United States.

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