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president completed the team by appointing geneticist Francis Collins at the National Insti- tutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and geophysicist Marcia McNutt at the US Geo- logical Survey in Reston, Virginia. Never before The had a president assembled such a strong crop of

researchers to lead his science agencies. M. RILEY/POLARIS/EYEVINE “The truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s about protecting free and open inquiry,” Obama pro- Obama claimed as he made the initial appointments. “It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient — especially experımentBY JEFF TOLLEFSON when it’s inconvenient.” Scientists and environmentalists swooned; they had spent 8 years complaining that the Nearly four years after US President Barack Obama pledged to put administration of President George W. Bush had overly politicized science. Climate researchers science in its rightful place, Nature asks if he kept his word. in government had charged that they were being muzzled and that their data were being manip- n 15 December 2008, president-elect would head the National Oceanographic and ulated. Pollution regulations were blocked or Barack Obama made clear to the world Atmospheric Administration in Washing- watered down. With Obama’s election, scientists Othat science would have a central seat ton DC and physicist John Holdren would be would finally have a president who not only said in his administration. At a press conference in Obama’s science adviser and head the Office the right things but actually appointed the right Chicago, Obama introduced Nobel laureate of Science and Technology Policy, also in people. Even journalists drooled. “Science Born Steven Chu as the next secretary of the energy Washington DC. They joined Lisa Jackson, Again in the White House, and Not a Moment department and the person who would help to a respected chemical engineer with political Too Soon,” read a headline in Wired magazine, wean the country off its addiction to climate- experience, who had been named to run the endorsing Obama’s appointments with a swipe warming fossil fuels. “His appointment should US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at Bush’s reputation as a born-again Christian. send a signal to all, that my administration will in Washington DC. After taking office, the The love affair would soon cool, however, value science,” Obama said. as the Obama administration started to hit a Within days, he announced other mem- number of obstacles while trying to govern a bers of his future staff, who would make up US ELECTION politically fractured nation in the midst of the a star-studded science team (see ‘The science Science and Politics in America worst economic crisis in 70 years. The president nature.com/election202 dream team’): marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco has not fulfilled some of his top science-related

488 | NATURE | VOL 489 | 27 SEPTEMBER 2012 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved FEATURE NEWS promises, such as passing climate legislation stimulus package. “And I think part of it has to legislation seeking to reduce US greenhouse-gas to reduce the nation’s emissions of greenhouse do with Obama himself. This guy likes science.” emissions by roughly 80% below 2005 levels by gases. He has paid relatively little attention In those early months, the science agenda 2050, leaving the Senate as the next big hurdle. to NASA and the NIH, and got into bruising continued to ride high. In April, Obama visited But then the climate bill had to wait. Obama budget wars with Congress that sapped support the National Academy of Sciences in Wash- and his team wanted first to push a health-care for some science agencies. And his vaunted ington DC and proposed a long-term expan- overhaul through Congress that would tame team stumbled in its response to the Deepwater sion of funding for basic and applied research rising costs and expand insurance to mil- Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which and development. When he submitted his lions of Americans. The plan was to deal with damaged the administration’s credibility with budget for 2010, Obama fulfilled that prom- health care before Congress took its August some researchers. ise by including full funding for the America break and then shepherd climate legislation But as Obama and his science team round out COMPETES Act, a stalled 2007 initiative that through the Senate in time for Obama to take their first term in office and make a bid for a sec- called for a doubling of the federal budget for something concrete to the United Nations’ ond, they can point to substantial achievements, physical sciences. He also increased funding global-warming summit in Copenhagen some of them little noticed. Even in fiscally tight for science and mathematics education. in December. But the health-care initiative times, Obama has invested heavily in science education and research, particularly in energy. His administration has also made headway in “The president never let up in his tackling pollution, in part by introducing the country’s first greenhouse-gas regulations. And consistent support for science, and by driving the creation of integrity policies that seek to protect scientists from political inter- actually he got a lot done.” ference (see ‘Integrity test’), his team has sent positive signals to agencies that had become Bigger budgets were not the only things that proved divisive and time-consuming. demoralized during the Bush years. were fuelling optimism. In March, Obama Obama ended up flying into Copenhagen “The president never let up in his consistent overturned Bush’s restrictions on using federal empty-handed. He pledged that the United support for science, and actually he got a lot funds to support research into human embry- States would reduce its emissions; but without done in spite of the Republican resistance,” says onic stem cells, and other early moves by the the backing of law-makers at home, he could Neal Lane, who was science adviser to former administration thrilled energy and climate make no binding commitments. President Bill Clinton and is now a professor researchers. On 19 May 2009, the president On Christmas Eve of 2009, the Senate finally at Rice University in Houston, Texas. invited the chief executives of ten of the world’s passed the health-care legislation. It was a his- largest car manufacturers to the White House toric achievement, decades in the making, but STIMULATING SCIENCE Rose Garden to announce a historic agree- it would come at a heavy political price. Within a week of the election in November ment to establish the first greenhouse-gas 2008, and with the economy in free fall, standards for US vehicles. For two decades, AN OILY MESS Obama’s advisers started working with the the companies had been fighting against If the health-care bill demonstrated the scientific community to survey ‘shovel-ready’ attempts to make cars more efficient, but the administration’s skills with Congress, then the projects for potential inclusion in a stimulus economic crisis and new regulatory author- way it handled NASA in early 2010 revealed package intended to boost construction and ity had given Obama some leverage over the how easily relations could sour. When the pres- get people back to work. They initially aimed industry. Tough regulations in California had ident rolled out his budget request in February, for US$5 billion in initiatives, but House Dem- also helped to make car makers more recep- it held a bitter surprise for congressional sup- ocrats doubled that in a draft of the stimulus tive to higher standards. Obama’s team later porters of the space agency. On the list of bill released on 15 January 2009, five days brokered a pact with the automobile industry projects to be eliminated was Constellation, before Obama’s inauguration. And the role of to nearly double the average fuel efficiency of a programme to develop massive rockets to science and innovation continued to grow. cars by 2025, to around 23 kilometres per litre. return humans to the Moon. On 17 February, exactly 4 weeks into office, “A lot of the credit goes to the president, who “This was a major policy pronouncement Obama signed a $787-billion stimulus bill that really persevered and insisted that this was but it was revealed in a budget release,” says contained at least $53 billion for science. The going to be part of the package,” says Kevin Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute bill made good on Obama’s promises to advance Knobloch, president of the Union of Con- at George Washington University in Washing- basic and applied research and development cerned Scientists, an advocacy group based in ton DC. Normally, an administration prepares aimed at the major problems of the day, includ- Cambridge, Massachusetts. “He believed that Congress for such a change — but Obama’s ing clean energy and global warming. It boosted technology was the key to saving the industry.” sudden move led to what Pace calls a “bruis- research funding by $2 billion at the National The deal was part of a broader push by the ing, year-long fight” with lawmakers in both Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, and White House to reduce emissions. In 2007, the parties. Eventually, several parts of the Constel- by $8.2 billion at the NIH. As he signed the bill Supreme Court had given the EPA the power lation programme were reinstated. But by then, at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in to regulate greenhouse gases, but the Bush NASA had become an agency adrift, left to the Colorado, Obama called it the biggest increase administration had declined to do so. When mercy of parochial interests in Congress. in the history of basic-research funding. Jackson came in, she immediately went to Human space flight and many other “You would have to go back to the 1940s, work building up the regulatory system. elements of NASA’s mission were never priori- when Harry Truman became president, to This new-found authority extended beyond ties of the Obama administration. In the 2013 find an administration that was receptive to vehicles; in theory, the EPA could regulate budget request, the agency’s astrophysics and doing something really significant on scientific greenhouse-gas emissions from any source, planetary-science programmes lost 8% of their research straight out of the box,” says Michael but neither the president nor Congress pre- funding compared with 2008. Obama was Lubell, who handles government affairs for the ferred that route for cutting emissions. Instead, more interested in fixing problems with his American Physical Society in Washington DC there were high hopes that Congress would act. home planet, and boosted funding for NASA’s and was one of a trio of scientists who helped to In June, the House of Representatives took the Earth-sciences programmes by 44% over the compile the initial suggestions for the science first step and passed comprehensive climate same period.

With health care finally out of the way, in Party candidates pushed the idea that the For Chu, ARPA-E was one of the success early 2010, Obama’s team set out to build administration was overspending, overregu- stories, part of his effort to shake up the a coalition for the president’s climate and lating and overreaching by exerting govern- Department of Energy and create a more energy policies. Obama started on 31 March ment control over issues such as health care. nimble agency that could tackle com- by announcing a plan to open up large swathes The Republican party swept the Congressional plex research challenges. Initiated with of the US coast, including the eastern Gulf of elections, and many ultra-conservative politi- $400 million in stimulus money, ARPA-E pro- Mexico and parts of the east coast, to offshore cians went to Washington DC promising that vides grants for the type of high-risk energy drilling. The decision was enormously con- they would block Obama’s initiatives. research that industry tends to avoid. Obama troversial, with environmentalists and many Within weeks of arriving, the new Repub- and Chu managed to build lasting bipartisan lawmakers in his own party, who had opposed lican-controlled House of Representatives support by convincing Congress that such such plans for years, arguing that accidents passed a spending bill for 2011 that took aim blue-sky research was key to establishing US were inevitable. But Obama saw the offshore- at Obama’s energy and environment agendas. leadership in new energy technologies. Even in drilling expansion as part of a broader strat- The measure slashed the budgets of key science this year’s tight budget, ARPA-E received $275 egy to move the US economy from foreign to agencies by nearly $6.7 billion as part of a broad million. Chu also battled to create a series of ‘energy innovation hubs’ to bring together scientists from different disciplines in institutes “There’s the disappointment of not reminiscent of the defunct Bell Labs, where Chu had done some of his seminal work. The getting legislation. But we didn’t five hubs focus on simulations for nuclear reactors; fuels from sunlight; energy-efficient just sit on our hands.” buildings; energy storage; and critical materials. “Have the energy hubs worked?” asks the domestic sources. By increasing oil production, reduction in federal spending. But Obama and American Physical Society’s Lubell. “It’s too the president also aimed to soften opposition the Democrats in the Senate fought back, and soon to tell, but I give him credit for trying.” to a comprehensive climate policy that would the final budget trimmed core science activities Chu paid a political price for his energy require cuts in carbon emissions. by just $1.2 billion. A similar story would play agenda when a US solar manufacturer that had But any lingering hopes for a climate agree- out during negotiations over the fiscal 2012 received $535 million in federal loan guaran- ment disappeared in a plume of smoke above budget, and few doubt that Obama will try to tees as part of the stimulus went belly-up in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April. protect science this year, which is shaping up September 2011, in part because competi- The crisis began with an explosion that killed to be his biggest budgetary showdown with tion with Chinese manufacturers had driven 11 crewmen on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. conservatives yet. down prices for solar cells. Applied research Two days later, the rig sank, leaving untold The administration deserves credit for and development has always been a harder quantities of oil and gas spewing into the gulf at recognizing that science is a priority even when sell among conservatives, who fear that the a daunting depth of some 1,500 metres. British times are tough, says Norman Augustine, for- government will ‘pick winners and losers’, and energy giant BP would not succeed in capping mer chief executive of aerospace and defence in this case, Republicans were all too happy to the well until 15 July, and the clean-up efforts firm Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, and the run advertisements pointing out that the gov- continued for months. This was Obama’s Hurri- Republican who chaired the 2005 report Ris- ernment had chosen a loser. Chu was sanguine cane Katrina, and the incident raised questions ing Above the Gathering Storm, which made the during congressional testimony in November about the president’s commitment to scientific case for greater federal investment in science. 2011. “When it comes to the clean energy race, integrity. Critics charged that administration Augustine says that in terms of the science America faces a simple choice: compete or officials were downplaying the risks by publi- budget over the past few years, “things are not accept defeat,” Chu told lawmakers. “I believe cizing extremely low estimates of the amount of as bad as they might have been”. we can and must compete.” oil spilling into the gulf and by misstating what And even though the climate legislation has was known about the fate of the oil. The admin- MODEST GOALS stalled, the president’s policies have helped to istration was also accused of misrepresenting In late February 2011, just as the new change the landscape. According to the Office scientists when it said — incorrectly — that they Republican majority was flexing its muscles in of Science and Technology Policy, the capac- had recommended a temporary drilling mora- the budget battle, energy secretary Chu threw a ity for generating electricity from renewable torium, imposed in late May. party to celebrate one of his newest projects: the sources has nearly doubled since Obama took But the political ramifications went well Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy office. A boom in natural-gas production beyond the crisis in the gulf. The administra- (ARPA-E). Former California governor Arnold and tightened air-quality regulations have tion’s response kept top officials from several Schwarzenegger stole the show with a rousing led many utilities to switch from coal to gas, agencies working around the clock for weeks speech calling on Democrats and Republicans helping to reduce US carbon emissions in the on end, leaving little time or energy for a simul- to advance the clean-energy research agenda electricity sector. And rising oil production in taneous effort to push the climate bill. Worse, in the name of public health, national security the United States has cut imports substantially. the disaster ruptured the shaky coalition that and economic competitiveness, if not global Obama cannot take credit for all this, but his Obama had been trying to build over climate warming. He ended his pep talk quoting one broad energy policies supported those trends. and energy. Most visibly, when his administra- of the film characters he had played, Conan the Roger Pielke Jr, a science-policy expert at tion responded by placing a moratorium on Barbarian. “Conan was not big on philosophi- the University of Colorado Boulder, says that drilling in the gulf, Republicans argued that cal arguments, or navel gazing or complaining,” the administration swerved politically toward the Obama administration was harming US said Schwarzenegger. “He believed in action.” the centre on energy and environmental issues industry through excessive regulations at a time Obama would not have chosen the same after realizing that its climate objectives were when the economy was source of inspiration, but his team shared the unachievable on Capitol Hill. In the end, Pielke NATURE.COM still deep in recession. sentiment. During the second half of Obama’s says, Obama proved himself to be a policy For an interview with In the run-up to con- term, the administration scaled back some pragmatist who is more interested in achieving Francis Collins, see: gressional elections in of its grand goals and instead advanced the modest goals than in shooting for the Moon. go.nature.com/mmudjj November 2010, Tea science agenda through smaller actions. At the NIH, however, Collins did not rein in

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BOTTOM LINE 2012 2011 2010 2009 integrity guidelines. produced draft or final federal agencies have 120 days. integrity policies within on developing scientific- agencies with guidance asked him to provide after taking office, Obama federal government. better policiesacross the done more topushfor integrity butcould have of scienceand Helped toraise profile president’s science adviser Technology Policy and Office of Science and JOHN HOLDREN policies. agencies begin crafting at the end of year and finally issues guidelines • After a long delay, he one-third. budget of his office by ban. Congress slashes despite a congressional with Chinese officials, Congress after he met • By September, • Less than 2 months • Gets into fight with Early inhisadministration, Barack ObamanamedsomestellarscientiststoleadtheagenciesthatoverseeUScivilian research anddevelopmentactivities.Here ishow someofthescientificteamhavefared overthepast4years. materials. storage and critical focusing on energy work on two new hubs, efficient buildings. sunlight; and energy- reactors; fuels from simulation for nuclear that focus on computer innovative research. for small energy hubs for programme, ARPA-E, and high-risk energy research to provide funding for Department of Energy STEVEN CHU department. activities attheenergy research anddevelopment invigorating andfocusing bureaucracy while Tried tooverhaul bankrupt. energy department, goes $500 million from the received more than company that had Solyndra, a solar-energy from Congress after • Department starts • Launches hubs • Convinces Congress • Comes under fire The science dream team © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Allrights reserved satellites. in building new weather management problems and marine areas. management of coastal policy that harmonizes to create national ocean Administration and Atmospheric National Oceanographic JANE LUBCHENCO marine policies. opposition inCongress to agenda butencountered pushed asolidscientific the oilspill,Lubchenco Despite stumblesduring troubles on Capitol Hill. ocean policy encounters response to oil spill; new over administration’s battle with Congress scientist after losing to appoint chief goals. Service, one of her main create a National Climate Horizon accident. spilled in Deepwater amount and fate of oil over disputes about • Helps to resolve • Helps to lead effort • Withdraws plan • Congress kills plan to • Alienates scientists 27 SEPTEMBER 2012 | VOL 2012 | NATURE 489 | |491 SEPTEMBER 27 policy. Obama’s liberalized to agency grantees under cell lines made available human embryonic-stem- research centre. plans for a translational- National Institutes of Health FRANCIS COLLINS biomedical researchers. unhappiness among grim, leading to widespread funding picture turned infusion earlyon,but Oversaw massivebudget September. is named head in Christopher Austin permanent leader. 9 months without a centre operates for • Translational-research of 18%. rates fall to historic low application success • Approves first new • Goes public with • Agency’s grant gas and renewables. compared with natural plants less competitive made coal-fired power regulations that has plants, one of multiple other toxins from power emissions of mercury and standards for US vehicles. first greenhouse-gas makers to establish agreement with car vehicles. efficiency standards for greenhouse-gas and fuel- department to finalize transportation public health. emissions threaten that greenhouse-gas Agency Environmental Protection LISA JACKSON on CapitolHill. openly hostileenvironment gas emissions,despite an for regulating greenhouse- and laidthegroundwork Tightened pollutioncontrols new power plants. emissions standards for set greenhouse-gas crosses into other states. from power plants that to limit amount of pollution • Issues rule to reduce • Announces • Works with • Issues finding • Proposes rule to FEATURE • Court overturns rule

NEWS NEWS FEATURE

centre, and it opened in the final days of 2011. Some critics question the centre’s mission. INTEGRITY TEST At a congressional hearing in March, Roy Vagelos, former chief executive of drug-maker A drive to put science above politics Merck, asked whether anyone believed that NCATS would be able to solve problems that has hit some rough patches. are stumping the pharmaceutical industry. “If you believe that, you believe in fairies,” he said. Two months into his new job, President Barack Obama gathered a group of scientists at the In May, Collins announced the first fruits of White House to sign a memorandum on scientific integrity that declared “Science and the the centre. Standing with the research chiefs scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration”. The 2009 statement of three top pharmaceutical companies, he promised that “political officials should not suppress or alter scientific or technological findings unveiled a $20-million effort to resurrect and conclusions”. For US researchers, the agreement came as a welcome change from the drugs that had passed safety trials but had been administration of George W. Bush, which had frequently been accused of infringing on science. shelved by industry for business reasons or Watchdog groups that track scientific integrity say that Obama’s administration has because they did not work for specific condi- generally kept those promises — with some notable exceptions. Government scientists tions. Under the agreement, the companies gave are reporting less political interference and more freedom to speak publicly than they NIH-funded scientists a stab at repurposing experienced under the previous administration. “Agencies change slowly, but if they can those compounds. “The Obama administration change slowly into this culture of transparency, then we can win,” says Francesca Grifo of the is all about innovation,” says Collins. “And that’s Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who has spent time working very much what NCATS means to do.” with staff at federal agencies to develop integrity policies. As the election nears, Obama’s science team Even so, the transition has taken much longer than anticipated. Obama’s science is racing to finish up its work. On 28 August, adviser, John Holdren, was supposed to issue guidelines for agencies within 120 days of the EPA and the transportation department Obama signing the memo, but it took nearly two years. Now, however, all US government finalized the changes in vehicle standards that agencies have either final or draft policies on scientific integrity, says Rick Weiss, chief of Obama initiated in the rose garden with car communications for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which Holdren makers more than three years ago. In the inter- heads. Many of the policies that have been released explicitly forbid agency leadership from vening years, the EPA has moved forward with tampering with scientific results. its Supreme Court authority and begun to lay Still, there have been lapses, charge critics. In December 2011, the US Food and Drug the groundwork for a broad array of climate Administration (FDA) concluded that the morning-after contraceptive pill, Plan B One Step regulations. In March, it proposed a rule that (levonorgestrel), should be made available to girls under the age of 17 without a prescription. would set emissions standards for new power But that decision was overruled by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. plants and effectively ban coal plants unless Obama said that he supported Sebelius’ decision and that “her judgement was that there was they capture and bury carbon dioxide. not enough evidence” that the youngest adolescents would be able to use the pill properly. Looking back over the past four years, Margaret Hamburg, the FDA commissioner, disputed that decision and stood up for agency Holdren says that “President Obama has made scientists, who had determined there was sufficient evidence that younger teens were able to an unprecedented commitment to science, use the medication correctly and safely. technology and innovation. … He promised on Sebelius’s intervention was “deeply disturbing”, said Susan Wood, a health-policy expert inauguration day to ‘restore science to its right- at George Washington University in Washington DC and a former assistant commissioner ful place’ — a promise he has kept in spades.” for women's health at the FDA. “Once again the scientific and medical expertise has been But even his supporters acknowledge that overruled.” The FDA faced controversy again two months ago when agency managers were the president did not achieve some of his found to have spied on the e-mails of five staff scientists. biggest science-related goals. Carol Browner The April 2010 oil spill from BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico also raised served as Obama’s climate and energy adviser concerns about integrity. In May 2010, Marcia McNutt, director of the US Geological Survey during the first two years and led the admin- in Reston, Virginia, wrote in an e-mail to scientists working to estimate the size of the spill istration’s push to pass climate legislation. that the White House was trying to understate the numbers. That e-mail was obtained and “There’s the disappointment of not getting released by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, based legislation,” she says. “But we didn’t just sit on in Washington DC. McNutt’s comments echoed the concerns of many scientists, who had our hands.” argued that government estimates of the oil spill were much too low. In his speech to the Democratic Convention Grifo says that a major problem with translating policies on scientific integrity into action on 6 September, Obama laid out some of his has been a lack of commitment by agency leadership. But that is not the case across the energy goals, should the country extend his board. Wood says, for instance, that Hamburg took a remarkable public stance by backing her stay in the White House. He talked about agency’s scientists, even though she was overruled. “Her Plan B decision was a clear stand-up further reducing oil imports and advancing for both science and public health in the face of controversy. Good for her. You don’t often see natural-gas production. He discussed improv- that in senior political appointees,” she says. E.S.R., J.T., M.W. ing energy efficiency and advancing clean, renewable energies. “And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that his big ambitions. In December 2011, he and Collins had proposed NCATS a year earlier, is heating our planet because climate change a few dozen colleagues gathered for beers at to catalyse the ailing process of drug devel- is not a hoax,” he said. But in sharp contrast to the Rock Bottom brewery in Bethesda to cele opment by attacking bottlenecks in clinical the soaring rhetoric and bold plans of 2008, he brate one of the biggest changes at the agency trials, toxicology research and other areas. didn’t make any big promises. ■ SEE EDITORIAL P.473 in a generation. Collins and his team had suc- Although his plan hit some resistance in the ceeded in creating the National Center for NIH, in industry and on Capitol Hill, Col- Jeff Tollefson covers energy and environment Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), lins managed to convince key members of for Nature in New York. Additional reporting providing the administration with another Congress to support the shifting of funds by Eric Hand, Meredith Wadman and Eugenie victory in applied research. within the NIH to create the $575-million Samuel Reich.