Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt Contributes an Op-Ed to the Daily Telegraph. (September 19, 2012)

Click here to access the full op-ed.

But the 2011 Physic Nobel Laureate's take-home message is divided, as was Julius Caesar's Gaul in De Bello Gallico, into three parts:

Here are three important things I would like to see:
 

MORE evidenced-based policy making - each proposal should consider the best available evidence and be nuanced by the political considerations of the day - not the other way around;
 

MORE scientists in government - we don't have to have a parliament full of lawyers and political practitioners. More diversity of backgrounds would strengthen our democracy, and this does not just include MPs but also advisers and government officials; and
 

WE need a steady hand when it comes to funding science. Science is a long-term investment and feeding it one year and starving it the next will lead to a poor return. We need to nurture a love of science in schools, keep students engaged and interested enough to become not just the scientists and Nobel Prize winners of tomorrow, but citizens able to thrive in an increasingly sophisticated world.

Then referring to his Science Meets Parliament post lecture invitation to our federal parliamentarians to join him on the roof of Parliament House for a bit of stargazing through telescopes he had had set up that evening: I hope last night starts a conversation about getting our leaders to see the world from outside their bubble and better appreciate how science can contribute. Maybe our MPs will continue to reach for the stars years after this night has passed.

We can only hope that he will succeed in achieving his goal as well as did Caesar in conquering Gaul.