Tuesday in SF: Science on the March

A few years back and in the office of a newspaper that shall remain nameless, the managing editor told me that he had no need on his staff for a science reporter because his readers "had more important things to read about." This conversation took place in a large American city with a major research university including a medical school, a children's hospital with a large research arm, and a Fortune 500 consumer products company engaged in significant basic R&D enterprise. Throw in hospitals, engineering firms, several undergraduate colleges, companies dealing in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and high tech of various varieties. Science clearly was of little importance to his readers.

Of course, the newspaper industry is dying while science, even in these rough economic times, is holding its own. This came to me this morning as I found myself in a phalanx of scientists, bristling with poster tubes, marching in the rain toward the Moscone Center where we split up into biologists and geophysicists. As I mentioned early in this blog, there are roughly 25,000 scientists, students and associates at these two meetings here.

Maybe someone should organize a million scientists (and engineers) march on Washington.