Science & Politics

Several recent items worth noting again are at the intersection of science & politics. First, the Pluto saga that I've already mentioned several times. This story represents politics in the broadest sense of the word, where cultural tradition and public pressure (politics in essence) almost led a scientific body (IAU) to define a planet based not on logical categories but on a historically based desire to keep a paradigm intact. It's not that the terminology is really all that important or that the current definition doesn't have problems (See again Bad Astronomy Blog or any of the Times articles on the issue), but that the definition that included Pluto as a planet was perhaps the worst, most inelegant, of the possible definitions, stitched together to satisfy a constituency's sentimental desires to maintain Pluto as a planet. Chalk one up for science.

Second item. The FDA finally approved over-the-counter sales of Plan B, a hormonal emergency contraceptive that has long been deemed safe for over the counter sale by the professionals at FDA who study these matters but held up by the *bush administration (directly or indirectly - it's all the same to me) for obvious political reasons. As PZ Myers points out in a fabulous summary of the physiology of it all, Plan B is not an "abortion pill" - it works by blocking ovulation or fertilization. In rare cases it may stop a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, but that's pretty much true of traditional birth control pills as well. Chalk this one up as a political victory. Why? Because the decision was reached not because the politicos at the FDA came to their senses, but because the Democrats in congress applied the necessary political pressure in holding up the nomination of bush's appointee, Andrew C. Von Eschenbach, until after a decision about Plan B was reached. Gotta play hardball with this crowd - will Democrats ever really learn?

Last item. DarkSyde over at DailyKos has a "Science Friday" piece on a somewhat related topic, stem cell research. August is the anniversary of bush's speech (2001) limiting stem cell research to such an extent as to be a virtual ban as regards government funding. DarkSyde discusses the consequences and the politics. Includes a powerful juxtaposition of two pictures, a human embryonic stem cell and young Iraqi girl. Go read the caption (and the rest of the article), if you can't figure out already what the point is. A sad victory for politics. DarkSyde's post draws heavily from Chris Mooney's recent book "The Republican War on Science," which is out in paperback. I'm getting a copy today.

*When bush stops calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party" I'll start capitalizing his name.