Thank God the darkness is over.
As a science writer, we welcome not only the restoration of science by real scientists, but even its elevation to a cabinet position.
I was taught that scientists were only supposed to report on what the science was, but then step back out of the picture, and not influence to whether science was ignored, or even worse, abused.
During my lifetime, I saw that that was not sufficient, and that science had to be coupled with humanity. In the warping of truth and science in the last administration, the science societies and journals also realized that they not only had to support science but be sure that it was used appropriately and when needed. This was led by the government-independent National Academies of the Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, NASEM.
Our most pressing challenges are science based: overcoming the pandemic; making progress to slow climate change; and de-escalating and eventually getting rid of nuclear weapons. The problems are huge, and urgent. It is great that we are recruiting the top people to address them.
Since being inaugurated today, President Biden has: required masks in federal buildings and interstate transport; rejoined the World Health Organization; and ordered us to rejoin the Paris Agreement on combatting climate change. The funding of W.H.O. And international vaccinations is necessary since the Coronavirus and new forms travel around the world at almost the speed of sound.
Personally, I am also glad that popular music is back in the administration. Music is emotional, caring, healing, and uniting. It has been absent, since most artists would not endorse the past administration.
