The Bush administration loves to wrap itself in the mantle of "sound science [3]," but as we've reported in our book Trust Us, We're Experts [4], "sound science" is a buzz-word for science with a pro-industry bias. Now, "More than 60 influential scientists, including 20 Nobel
laureates, issued a statement yesterday asserting that the
Bush administration had systematically distorted scientific
fact in the service of policy goals on the environment,
health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home
and abroad. The sweeping accusations were later discussed in a
conference call organized by the Union of Concerned
Scientists, an independent organization that focuses on
technical issues and has often taken stands at odds with
administration policy. On Wednesday, the organization also
issued a 38-page report detailing its accusations [5]. The two documents accuse the administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing reports by its own scientists, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political
appointees, disbanding government panels that provide
unwanted advice and refusing to seek any independent
scientific expertise in some cases."