Michael Eisen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, [has]…announced on Twitter that he will run for US Senate in 2018…Nature caught up with Eisen to ask him about his plans.
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What made you decide to run?
This election, and in particular, everybody’s worst fears about the new administration’s attitudes. Not toward science in the narrow sense…but the basic rejection of the fundamental principles upon which science is based. I’ve long thought that there’s been a dearth of scientific engagement with politics in general.
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Why the Senate?
Related on the SLP
That’s the place where the issues are in focus. I keep wanting to see a scientist in these hearings on all these presidential appointees, who can ask them questions that a scientist would ask. There are a few scientists in the House, but there aren’t any in the Senate.
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What’s your platform?
This is not about fighting for science funding: scientists feel like not just our voice, but our perspective is not well represented in politics. And because politicians have ignored or have been outright attacking science, so much of what we believe in is under threat. We’re paying the price for having been politically disengaged for such a long time.
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