Ever since Reagan shut down the Office of Technology Assessment in retribution for their thumbs-down on the wishful-thinking science behind Star Wars, US lawmakers have had no systematic way of educating themselves on scientific matters, and have made bad laws and policies as a result. Now there's a movement afoot to bring back the OTA and a semblance of rationality to the collisions of laws and science (maybe they'll even kick the USPTO in the ass!).
"On anthrax they'll listen to an expert. On cloning they won't," he said.
"I think your basic beliefs override [scientific knowledge] and on those issues [such as cloning], scientists are divided down the middle," explains Rep. Ralph Hall (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Science Committee, who is often considered more conservative than his Republican counterpart Boehlert.
But for those issues that do require a basic background of science, OTA supporters see it as the best solution.
"In the search for new information, [lawmakers] already have contacts with people," Guston said. "They put together a hearing that shows the same perspectives, even if they're varying perspectives, of the people that put together the hearing."
Holt sees his colleagues' lack of scientific knowledge as a reflection of a nationwide problem.
"The way science is talked about at most schools," he said, "is that science is for scientists, and everyone else stays away from it.
"The result is that we have a citizenry that turns away from science. So do their representatives."
