How You Know America Rules The Science World

A few years ago Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge awarded a prize to America's fourth most useless President of the 20th century, Jimmy Carter, and declared the prize "must also be seen as criticism of the line the U.S. administration has taken on Iraq ... a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States." In other words, we will give a prize to ineffectual Americans because we're more about politics than peace. Communist darling of the left Joseph Stalin being a nominee while Ghandi never got one at all tells you all you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. Now it seems the curse is inflicting the hard sciences also. Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford was awarded the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins. Important stuff, you say? Well, sure, but so are lots of things in chemistry. Kornberg stands out because understanding the process is key to using stem cells to treat disease. George Bush made it possible for federal funding of stem cell research but he objected, as did many, when some scientists want to use that federal money for things other than embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed. This was a call to war for political activists ( and a few scientists ) who felt that a stem cell is a stem cell. Most scientists long ago conceded that the difference in actual research value is minor but the political community is using the shifting target of this science to make a case against a politician they do not like. Now the Nobel Committee is doing the same in chemistry. No one will be as stupid as Berge and come out and admit it. Plus, I bet on George Whitesides to win this for his work on Self-Assembly and I lost 5 bucks so I'm a little extra cranky.