US Scientists Call on Would-be Presidential Candidates to Debate Scientific and Technological Issues. (December 15, 2007)

They are Sciencedebate 2008  and they ask: "Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy."

The primary instigators are  Lawrence Krauss, Director, Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Chris Mooney, US journalist who focuses on science in politics, and Sheril Kirshenbaum, a marine biologist at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University.

A few of the 70 initial signatories:

• Harold Shapiro -- economist, bioethicist, and former President of Princeton University,

• Shirley Tilghman, president, Princeton University,

• Bob Park -- professor of physics and former chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland; author of Voodoo Science and the What'sNew blog,

• John Gibbons -- former Science Adviser to the President,

• Neil Lane -- former Science Adviser to the President and

• Nobel Laureates: Peter Agre, David Baltimore, Steve Chu, Val Fitch, David Gross, Dudley Herschbach, Roald Hoffmann, Wolfgang Ketterle, Leon Lederman, Harold Varmus, and Frank Wilczek.