The Daily Clarity

Science advances in a post-Bush era

It is surprising the long shadow that an American President spreads over the world, even one now retired from the office. George W Bush was a major inhibitor of scientific research and advancement. His strict fundamentalist belief set prohibited him from viewing many issues in their broader humanistic framework and only from within the tight confines of his religious dogma.

For example, he denied aid to non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) working in the developing world if their policies included the promotion of contraception, or in anyway indicated a pro-choice policy set. This had disastrous effects in regions of over-population, economic disadvantage, and environmental degradation. Higher birth rates merely exacerbated the issues. It will also leave a security legacy in a post-Bush era, as rocketing birth rates in developing countries in the eight years of his Presidency have increased the ‘youth bulge’. This created a latent problem when this group reaches teenage and becomes a mass of political and economic frustration creating a recreating pool for terrorist groups.

It was, however, in stem cell and gene research that Bush wreaked the greatest damage. Bush rejected and dismissed many scientific advisers as their views opposed his own dogma. One such scientist, Elizabeth Blackburn, an Australian researcher based in the US, was terminated from Bush’s Council on Bioethics in 2004 after questioning its bias. In a case of cosmic karma, Professor Blackburn was this week awarded the Nobel prize for her work which pioneered the study of telomeres, caps that protect chromosomes in cells, and is a discoverer of telomerase, an enzyme that does the protecting. Her work has opened a new field of science, raising the prospects of such medical breakthroughs as interfering with cancerous cells. President Bush may have gone, and such achievements celebrated, but it will take an age to recover from the impacts of his policies on “science”

Professor Blackburn has spoken out against closing career avenues to women because of the responsibilities of mothering young children. She said culture needed to change so a woman who had a family would not feel damned as a serious scientist.

The acting Science Minister, Craig Emerson, said her achievement was “an inspiration for all Australian scientists and those considering a career in science – especially for young women.”

Professor Roger Reddel, from the Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney, said Professor Blackburn’s discovery of the telomerase enzyme – which 85 per cent of all cancers depend on for their continuing growth – may make it possible to treat most cancers by developing drugs that block the activity of telomerase.

Australian Nobel prize winner|Nobel prize for medicine|Elizabeth Blackburn