HOLLYWOOD SQUARES

Rather than teach scientists how to write jazzy movie scripts, as the Pentagon is doing to encourage more young people to pursue a scientific career, the military brass may want to talk to the White House. Many in the Bush administration have ignored science when making decisions that clearly should be scientifically based. Stem cell restrictions, lax pollution regulations and inaction on climate change are just some examples.

According to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, a dwindling number of American students are pursuing science and engineering careers. That has left immigrants to fill the gap. However, defense industries and laboratories typically require workers to be American citizens or at least permanent residents. Unless more young people are encouraged to be scientists, research at such facilities could be slowed down, to the detriment of national security and economic prosperity.

So, the Air Force is paying $100,000 a year for three years and the Army Research Office has added $50,000 this year to run workshops to encourage scientists from a variety of disciplines to write screenplays. The hope is that some will actually be turned into movies and that young people will be inspired by the flicks to study science.

It may not have occurred to the Pentagon that a disregard for – and sometimes open hostility toward – science in Washington could be a bigger turnoff to budding researchers than a lack of dashing Ph.Ds on the screen.

Michael Mann, a University of Virginia climate researcher was ordered by the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, to turn over lists of all financial support he had ever received and to provide the location of all data archives relating to each published study he authored. Dr. Mann is an author of a controversial study that showed a sharp rise in global temperatures in the 20th century, especially the 1990s.

In 2001, President Bush limited embryonic stem cell research to existing lines, which it turns out were insufficient to support research into using the cells to cure diseases. It took Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon, nearly four years to decide that loosening such restrictions was a matter of science more than of faith.

President Bush recently diminished the process of scientific inquiry and validation when he said Intelligent Design should be taught alongside evolution in public school science classes. Never mind that generations of scientists have successfully based their research on the theory of evolution while Intelligent Design is a concept best discussed in a philosophy class.

The EPA ignored scientific studies on the health effects of mercury and instead adopted a rule for the pollutant written largely by industry lobbyists.

Come to think of it, all this might make for an interesting screenplay.