[Sci-tech-public] FYI -- Obama Comments at NAS today - Commitment to Science

[David Mindell]

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2009
Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, DC
April 27, 2009
It is my privilege to address the distinguished members of the National
Academy of Sciences, as well as the leaders of the National Academy of
Engineering and the Institute ofMedicine who have gathered here this
morning.
I'd like to begin today with a story of a previous visitor who also
addressed this august body.
In April of 1921, Albert Einstein visited the United States for the first
time. His international celebrity was growing as scientists around the world
began to understand and accept the vast implications of his theories of
special and general relativity. He attended this annual meeting, and after
sitting through a series of long speeches by others, he reportedly said, "I
have just got a new theory of eternity." I'll do my best to heed this
cautionary tale.
The very founding of this institution stands as a testament to the restless
curiosity and boundless hope so essential not just to the scientific
enterprise, but to this experiment we callAmerica.
A few months after a devastating defeat at Fredericksburg, before Gettysburg
would be won and Richmond would fall, before the fate of the Union would be
at all certain, President Lincoln signed into law an act creating the
National Academy of Sciences.
Lincoln refused to accept that our nation's sole purpose was merely to
survive. He created this academy, founded the land grant colleges, and began
the work of the transcontinental railroad, believing that we must add "the
fuel of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery. of new and useful
things."
This is America's story. Even in the hardest times, and against the toughest
odds, we have never given in to pessimism; we have never surrendered our
fates to chance; we have endured; we have worked hard; we have sought out
new frontiers.
Today, of course, we face more complex set of challenges than we ever have
before: a medical system that holds the promise of unlocking new cures and
treatments - attached to a health care system that holds the potential to
bankrupt families and businesses.  A system of energy that powers our
economy - but also endangers our planet.  Threats to our security that seek
to exploit the very interconnectedness and openness so essential to our
prosperity. And challenges in a global marketplace which links the
derivative trader on Wall Street to the homeowner on Main Street, the office
worker in America to the factory worker in China - a marketplace in which we
all share in opportunity, but also in crisis.
At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to
invest in science. That support for research is somehow a luxury at a moment
defined by necessities. I fundamentally disagree. Science is more essential
for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our
quality of life than it has ever been.  And if there was ever a day that
reminded us of our shared stake in science and research, it's today. 
We are closely monitoring the emerging cases of swine flu in the United
States.  This is obviously a cause for concern and requires a heightened
state of alert.  But it is not a cause for alarm.  The Department of Health
and Human Services has declared a Public Health Emergency as a precautionary
tool to ensure that we have the resources we need at our disposal to respond
quickly and effectively.  I'm getting regular updates on the situation from
the responsible agencies, and the Department of Health and Human Services as
well as the Centers for Disease Control will be offering regular updates to
the American people so that they know what steps are being taken and what
steps they may need to take.  But one thing is clear - our capacity to deal
with a public health challenge of this sort rests heavily on the work of our
scientific and medical community.  And this is one more example of why we
cannot allow our nation to fall behind.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened.
Federal funding in the physical sciences as a portion of our gross domestic
product has fallen by nearly half over the past quarter century. Time and
again we've allowed the research and experimentation tax credit, which helps
businesses grow and innovate, to lapse.
Our schools continue to trail. Our students are outperformed in math and
science by their peers in Singapore, Japan, England, the Netherlands, Hong
Kong, and Korea, among others. Another assessment shows American fifteen
year olds ranked 25th in math and 21st in science when compared to nations
around the world.
And we have watched as scientific integrity has been undermined and
scientific research politicized in an effort to advance predetermined
ideological agendas.
We know that our country is better than this.
A half century ago, this nation made a commitment to lead the world in
scientific and technological innovation; to invest in education, in
research, in engineering; to set a goal of reaching space and engaging every
citizen in that historic mission. That was the high water mark ofAmerica's
investment in research and development. Since then our investments have
steadily declined as a share of our national income - our GDP. As a result,
other countries are now beginning to pull ahead in the pursuit of this
generation's great discoveries.   
I believe it is not in our American character to follow - but to lead. And
it is time for us to lead once again. I am here today to set this goal: we
will devote more than three percent of our GDP to research and development.
We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height
of the Space Race, through policies that invest in basic and applied
research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote
breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and
science. This represents the largest commitment to scientific research and
innovation in American history.
Just think what this will allow us to accomplish: solar cells as cheap as
paint, and green buildings that produce all of the energy they consume;
learning software as effective as a personal tutor; prosthetics so advanced
that you could play the piano again; an expansion of the frontiers of human
knowledge about ourselves and world the around us. We can do this.
 The pursuit of discovery half a century ago fueled our prosperity and our
success as a nation in the half century that followed. The commitment I am
making today will fuel our success for another fifty years. That is how we
will ensure that our children and their children will look back on this
generation's work as that which defined the progress and delivered the
prosperity of the 21st century.
This work begins with an historic commitment to basic science and applied
research, from the labs of renowned universities to the proving grounds of
innovative companies.
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and with the support of
Congress, my administration is already providing the largest single boost to
investment in basic research in American history.
This is important right now, as public and private colleges and universities
across the country reckon with shrinking endowments and tightening budgets.
But this is also incredibly important for our future. As Vannevar Bush, who
served as scientific advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, famously said:
"Basic scientific research is scientific capital." 
The fact is, an investigation into a particular physical, chemical, or
biological process might not pay off for a year, or a decade, or at all. And
when it does, the rewards are often broadly shared, enjoyed by those who
bore its costs but also by those who did not.
That's why the private sector under-invests in basic science - and why the
public sector must invest in this kind of research. Because while the risks
may be large, so are the rewards for our economy and our society.
No one can predict what new applications will be born of basic research: new
treatments in our hospitals; new sources of efficient energy; new building
materials; new kinds of crops more resistant to heat and drought.
It was basic research in the photoelectric effect that would one day lead to
solar panels. It was basic research in physics that would eventually produce
the CAT scan. The calculations of today's GPS satellites are based on the
equations that Einstein put to paper more than a century ago.
In addition to the investments in the Recovery Act, the budget I've proposed
- and versions have now passed both the House and Senate - builds on the
historic investments in research contained in the recovery plan.
We double the budget of key agencies, including the National Science
Foundation, a primary source of funding for academic research, and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, which supports a wide range
of pursuits - from improving health information technology to measuring
carbon pollution, from testing "smart grid" designs to developing advanced
manufacturing processes. And my budget doubles funding for the Department of
Energy's Office of Science which builds and operates accelerators,
colliders, supercomputers, high-energy light sources, and facilities for
making nano-materials. Because we know that a nation's potential for
scientific discovery is defined by the tools it makes available to its
researchers.
But the renewed commitment of our nation will not be driven by government
investment alone. It is a commitment that extends from the laboratory to the
marketplace.
That is why my budget makes the research and experimentation tax credit
permanent. This is a tax credit that returns two dollars to the economy for
every dollar we spend, by helping companies afford the often high costs of
developing new ideas, new technologies, and new products. Yet at times we've
allowed it to lapse or only renewed it year to year. I've heard this time
and again from entrepreneurs across this country: by making this credit
permanent, we make it possible for businesses to plan the kinds of projects
that create jobs and economic growth.
Second, in no area will innovation be more important than in the development
of new technologies to produce, use, and save energy - which is why my
administration has made an unprecedented commitment to developing a 21st
century clean energy economy.
Our future on this planet depends upon our willingness to address the
challenge posed by carbon pollution. And our future as a nation depends upon
our willingness to embrace this challenge as an opportunity to lead the
world in pursuit of new discovery.
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik a little more than a half century
ago, Americans were stunned: the Russians had beaten us to space. We had a
choice to make: we could accept defeat - or we could accept the challenge.
And as always, we chose to accept the challenge.
President Eisenhower signed legislation to create NASA and to invest in
science and math education, from grade school to graduate school. And just a
few years later, a month after his address to the 1961 Annual Meeting of the
National Academy of Sciences, President Kennedy boldly declared before a
joint session of Congress that the United States would send a man to the
moon and return him safely to the earth.
The scientific community rallied behind this goal and set about achieving
it. And it would lead not just to those first steps on the moon, but also to
giant leaps in our understanding here at home. The Apollo program itself
produced technologies that have improved kidney dialysis and water
purification systems; sensors to test for hazardous gasses; energy-saving
building materials; and fire-resistant fabrics used by firefighters and
soldiers. And, more broadly, the enormous investment of that era - in
science and technology, in education and research funding - produced a great
outpouring of curiosity and creativity, the benefits of which have been
incalculable. 
The fact is, there will be no single Sputnik moment for this generation's
challenge to break our dependence on fossil fuels. In many ways, this makes
the challenge even tougher to solve - and makes it all the more important to
keep our eyes fixed on the work ahead.
That is why I have set as a goal for our nation that we will reduce our
carbon pollution by more than 80 percent by 2050. And that is why I am
pursuing, in concert with Congress, the policies that will help us meet this
goal.
My recovery plan provides the incentives to double our nation's capacity to
generate renewable energy over the next few years - extending the production
tax credit, providing loan guarantees, and offering grants to spur
investment. For example, federally funded research and development has
dropped the cost of solar panels by ten-fold over the last three decades.
Our renewed efforts will ensure that solar and other clean energy
technologies will be competitive.
My budget includes $150 billion over ten years to invest in sources of
renewable energy as well as energy efficiency; it supports efforts at NASA,
recommended as a priority by the National Research Council, to develop new
space-based capabilities to help us better understand our changing climate.
And today, I am also announcing that for the first time, we are funding an
initiative - recommended by this organization - called the Advanced Research
Projects Agency for Energy, or ARPA-E.
This is based on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as
DARPA, which was created during the Eisenhower administration in response to
Sputnik. It has been charged throughout its history with conducting
high-risk, high-reward research. The precursor to the internet, known as
ARPANET, stealth technology, and the Global Positioning System all owe a
debt to the work of DARPA.
ARPA-E seeks to do this same kind of high-risk, high-reward research. My
administration will also pursue comprehensive legislation to place a
market-based cap on carbon emissions. We will make renewable energy the
profitable kind of energy in America. And I am confident that we will find a
wellspring of creativity just waiting to be tapped by researchers in this
room and entrepreneurs across our country.
The nation that leads the world in 21st century clean energy will be the
nation that leads in the 21st century global economy. America can and must
be that nation.
Third, in order to lead in the global economy - and ensure that our
businesses can grow and innovate, and our families can thrive - we must
address the shortcomings of our health care system.
The Recovery Act will support the long overdue step of computerizing
America's medical records, to reduce the duplication, waste, and errors that
cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives.
But it's important to note: these records also hold the potential of
offering patients the chance to be more active participants in prevention
and treatment. We must maintain patient control over these records and
respect their privacy. At the same time, however, we have the opportunity to
offer billions and billions of anonymous data points to medical researchers
who may find in this information evidence that can help us better understand
disease.
History also teaches us the greatest advances in medicine have come from
scientific breakthroughs: the discovery of antibiotics; improved public
health practices; vaccines for smallpox, polio, and many other infectious
diseases; anti-retroviral drugs that can return AIDS patients to productive
lives; pills that can control certain types of blood cancers; and so many
others.  
And because of recent progress - not just in biology, genetics and medicine,
but also in physics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering - we have
the potential to make enormous progress against diseases in the coming
decades.  That is why my Administration is committed to increasing funding
for the National Institutes of Health, including $6 billion to support
cancer research, part of a sustained, multi-year plan to double cancer
research in our country.
Fourth, we are restoring science to its rightful place.
On March 9th, I signed an executive memorandum with a clear message: Under
my administration, the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are
over.  Our progress as a nation - and our values as a nation - are rooted in
free and open inquiry. To undermine scientific integrity is to undermine our
democracy.
That is why I have charged the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy with leading a new effort to ensure that federal policies are based
on the best and most unbiased scientific information.  I want to be sure
that facts are driving scientific decisions - and not the other way around.
As part of this effort, we've already launched a website that allows
individuals to not only make recommendations to achieve this goal, but to
collaborate on those recommendations; it is a small step, but one that is
creating a more transparent, participatory and democratic government.
We also need to engage the scientific community directly in the work of
public policy.  That is why, today, I am announcing the appointment of the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, known as PCAST,
with which I plan to work closely.
This council represents leaders from many scientific disciplines who will
bring a diversity of experiences and views. I will charge PCAST with
advising me about national strategies to nurture and sustain a culture of
scientific innovation.  It will be co-chaired by John Holdren, my top
science advisor; Eric Lander, one of the principal leaders of the Human
Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, former head of the National Institutes of
Health and a Nobel laureate. 
In biomedicine, for example, this will include harnessing the historic
convergence between life sciences and physical sciences that is underway
today; undertaking public projects - in the spirit of the Human Genome
Project - to create data and capabilities that fuel discoveries in tens of
thousands of laboratories; and identifying and overcoming scientific and
bureaucratic barriers to rapidly translating scientific breakthroughs into
diagnostics and therapeutics that serve patients.
In environmental science, it will require strengthening our weather
forecasting, our earth observation from space, the management of our
nation's land, water and forests, and the stewardship of our coastal zones
and ocean fisheries.
We also need to work with our friends around the world. Science, technology,
and innovation proceed more rapidly and more cost-effectively when insights,
costs, and risks are shared; and so many of the challenges that science and
technology will help us meet are global in character. This is true of our
dependence on oil, the consequences of climate change, the threat of
epidemic disease, and the spread of nuclear weapons, among other examples. 
That is why my administration is ramping up participation in - and our
commitment to - international science and technology cooperation across the
many areas where it is clearly in our interest to do so. In fact, this week,
my administration is gathering the leaders of the world's major economies to
begin the work of addressing our common energy challenges together.
Fifth, since we know that the progress and prosperity of future generations
will depend on what we do now to educate the next generation, today I am
announcing a renewed commitment to education in mathematics and science.  
Through this commitment, American students will move from the middle to the
top of the pack in science and math over the next decade. For we know that
the nation that out-educates us today - will out-compete us tomorrow.
We cannot start soon enough. We know that the quality of math and science
teachers is the most influential single factor in determining whether or a
student will succeed or fail in these subjects. Yet, in high school, more
than twenty percent of students in math and more than sixty percent of
students in chemistry and physics are taught by teachers without expertise
in these fields. And this problem is only going to get worse; there is a
projected shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers across
the country by 2015.
That is why I am announcing today that states making strong commitments and
progress in math and science education will be eligible to compete later
this fall for additional funds under the Secretary of Education's $5 billion
Race to the Top program.
I am challenging states to dramatically improve achievement in math and
science by raising standards, modernizing science labs, upgrading
curriculum, and forging partnerships to improve the use of science and
technology in our classrooms.  And I am challenging states to enhance
teacher preparation and training, and to attract new and qualified math and
science teachers to better engage students and reinvigorate these subjects
in our schools.
In this endeavor, and others, we will work to support inventive approaches.
Let's create systems that retain and reward effective teachers, and let's
create new pathways for experienced professionals to enter the classroom.
There are, right now, chemists who could teach chemistry; physicists who
could teach physics; statisticians who could teach mathematics.  But we need
to create a way to bring the expertise and the enthusiasm of these folks -
folks like you - into the classroom.
There are states, for example, doing innovative work. I am pleased to
announce that Governor Ed Rendell will lead an effort with the National
Governors Association to increase the number of states that are making
science, technology, engineering and mathematics education a top priority.
Six states are currently participating in the initiative, including
Pennsylvania, which has launched an effective program to ensure that his
state has the skilled workforce in place to draw the jobs of the 21st
century. I'd want every state participate.
But our work does not end with a high school diploma.  For decades, we led
the world in educational attainment, and as a consequence we led the world
in economic growth. The G.I. Bill, for example, helped send a generation to
college. But in this new economy, we've come to trail other nations in
graduation rates, in educational achievement, and in the production of
scientists and engineers.
That's why my administration has set a goal that will greatly enhance our
ability to compete for the high-wage, high-tech jobs of the 21st century -
and to foster the next generation of scientists and engineers. In the next
decade - by 2020 - America will once again have the highest proportion of
college graduates in the world. And we've provided tax credits and grants to
make a college education more affordable.
My budget also triples the number of National Science Foundation graduate
research fellowships. This program was created as part of the Space Race
five decades ago. In the decades since, it's remained largely the same size
- even as the numbers of students who seek these fellowships has
skyrocketed. We ought to be supporting these young people who are pursuing
scientific careers, not putting obstacles in their path.
This is how we will lead the world in new discoveries in this new century.
But it will take far more than the work of government. It will take all of
us. It will take all of you.
And so today I want to challenge you to use your love and knowledge of
science to spark the same sense of wonder and excitement in a new
generation.
America's young people will rise to the challenge if given the opportunity -
if called upon to join a cause larger than themselves. And we've got
evidence. The average age in NASA's mission control during the Apollo 17
mission was just 26. I know that young people today are ready to tackle the
grand challenges of this century
So I want to persuade you to spend time in the classroom, talking - and
showing -young people what it is that your work can mean, and what it means
to you. Encourage your university to participate in programs to allow
students to get a degree in scientific fields and a teaching certificate at
the same time. Think about new and creative ways to engage young people in
science and engineering, like science festivals, robotics competitions, and
fairs that encourage young people to create, build, and invent - to be
makers of things.
And I want you to know that I'm going to be working along side you. I'm
going to participate in a public awareness and outreach campaign to
encourage students to consider careers in science, mathematics, and
engineering - because our future depends on it.
And the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation will be
launching a joint initiative to inspire tens of thousands of American
students to pursue careers in science, engineering and entrepreneurship
related to clean energy.
It will support an educational campaign to capture the imagination of young
people who can help us meet the energy challenge. It will create research
opportunities for undergraduates and educational opportunities for women and
minorities who too often have been underrepresented in scientific and
technological fields - but are no less capable of inventing the solutions
that will help us grow our economy and save our planet. And it will support
fellowships, interdisciplinary graduate programs, and partnerships between
academic institutions and innovative companies to prepare a generation of
Americans to meet this generational challenge.
For we must always remember that somewhere in America there's an
entrepreneur seeking a loan to start a business that could transform an
industry - but she hasn't secured it yet. There's a researcher with an idea
for an experiment that might offer a new cancer treatment - but he hasn't
found the funding yet. There is a child with an inquisitive mind staring up
at the night sky. Maybe she has the potential to change our world - but she
just doesn't know it yet.
As you know, scientific discovery takes far more than the occasional flash
of brilliance - as important as that can be. Usually, it takes time, hard
work, patience; it takes training; often, it requires the support of a
nation.
But it holds a promise like no other area of human endeavor.
In 1968, a year defined by loss and conflict, Apollo 8 carried into space
the first human beings ever to slip beyond the earth's gravity. The ship
would circle the moon ten times before returning home. But on its fourth
orbit, the capsule rotated and for the first time earth became visible
through the windows. 
Bill Anders, one of the astronauts aboard Apollo 8, could not believe what
he saw. He scrambled for a camera. He took a photo that showed the earth
coming up over the moon's horizon. It was the first ever taken from so
distant a vantage point, soon to become known as "Earthrise."
Anders would say that the moment forever changed him, to see our world -
this pale blue sphere - without borders, without divisions, at once so
tranquil and beautiful and alone.
"We came all this way to explore the moon," he said, "and the most important
thing is that we discovered the Earth."
Yes, scientific innovation offers us the chance to achieve prosperity. It
has offered us benefits that have improved our health and our lives - often
improvements we take too easily for granted. But it also gives us something
more.
At root, science forces us to reckon with the truth as best as we can
ascertain it. Some truths fill us with awe. Others force us to question long
held views. Science cannot answer every question; indeed, it seems at times
the more we plumb the mysteries of the physical world, the more humble we
must be. Science cannot supplant our ethics, our values, our principles, or
our faith, but science can inform those things, and help put these values,
these moral sentiments, that faith, to work - to feed a child, to heal the
sick, to be good stewards of this earth.
We are reminded that with each new discovery and the new power it brings,
comes new responsibility; that the fragility and the sheer specialness of
life requires us to move past our differences, to address our common
problems, to endure and continue humanity's strivings for a better world.
As President Kennedy said when he addressed the National Academy of Sciences
more than 45 years ago: "The challenge, in short, may be our salvation."
Thank you all for your past, present, and future discoveries. God bless you
and may God bless the United States of America.
As President Kennedy said when he addressed the National Academy of Sciences
more than 45 years ago: "The challenge, in short, may be our salvation."
Thank you all for your past, present, and future discoveries. God bless you
and may God bless the United States of America.
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