48 US Nobel Laureates Become Politically Active, Back John Kerry. (June 22, 2004)

    The New York Times reports (June 21), "Backed by the unusual endorsement of 48 Nobel laureates, Senator John Kerry on Monday accused the Bush administration of letting ideology trump science."

    Burton Richter, who received the Nobel in physics in 1976 for discovering the subatomic psi particle helped Mr. Kerry's campaign collect his colleagues' support in the last 10 days, said "Nobel laureates tend not to use their names for anything outside of science... I hope you take that as a sign of how seriously all of us think the errors of our present course are."

    And while

John Kerry used his public statement to emphasise his support for federal financing of stem-cell research in particular -- a clear follow on from the late President Reagan's widow plea -- he went on to promise to build an economy "based on innovation, ingenuity and imagination," and to "listen to the advice of scientists" and make their advisory reports open to the public. So far Senator Kerry has given no details of his science policy.

    Mr. Kerry and his Nobel Laureate supporters echoed a 38-page report issued in February by the Union of Concerned Scientists^{1, 2, 3} which accused the administration of "manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of science" on issues like biotechnology, global warming and nuclear power.