What Future for Science and Technology After This Autumn's US Elections?

What Future for Science and Technology After This Autumn's US Elections?

David M. Hart and Lewis M. Branscomb

The November 7 election in the United States promises to be one of the most closely-fought in decades. The Presidency is the biggest prize, but it is also possible that one or both houses of Congress will change hands.
Moreover, with two or more of the nine Supreme Court justices likely to step down during the next four years, the country's third branch of government could follow.

Although the two main political parties share a vision of an economy and society built on science and technology and open to the rest of the world, they have fundamental differences about the role of government in research
and innovation. Scientists and those with an interest in science everywhere have much at stake in the election's outcome....