Bush v. Science

"The Big Bang is 'not proven fact; it is opinion,' Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, 'It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.' "

Daniel Smith wrote in the New York Times Magazine in September about the growing sense in the scientific community that science is being misused by the White House.

Tom Toles cartoonified on Bush's approach to science last Thursday.

Ron Hutcheson wrote for Knight Ridder Newspapers last August when "President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and 'intelligent design' Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life."

Sebastian Mallaby wrote in a Washington Post opinion column last October: "The flip side of Bush cronyism is hostility toward experts -- toward people who care about what's what rather than who's who."

The Rise of Switch Grass

Rick Montgomery writes in the Kansas City Star: "Heretofore, the inglorious history of switch grass has mostly been about plowing it away or using it as a whip. . . .

"Now, no less of an authority than the U.S. president is pointing to switch grass as a potential miracle crop in the battle to free America from its addiction to foreign oil.

"Researchers already know how to convert cellulose from switch grass -- or wood chips, corn stalks, wheat straw, old newspapers -- into sugars used in making ethanol. The challenge is doing it cheaply. And until cellulose ethanol becomes cheap enough to compete with corn-based ethanol, experts say, the market value of switch grass will remain this side of worthless."

Garry Mitchell writes for the Associated Press: "In his call for greater use of alternative fuels, President Bush mentioned switchgrass as a possible source in the coming decades, but the idea may need a jump-start. A switchgrass researcher at Auburn University said federal policy-makers have delayed its commercial use by waiting for private industry to fund it.

" 'Industry won't fund it, because there's too much risk involved,' said David Bransby, a professor and switchgrass researcher at Auburn's College of Agriculture."

Melissa Block interviewed Bransby on NPR and found out that politics played a role in Bush's mention of switch grass.

"BLOCK: Do you have any idea how switch grass made it into the State of the Union? What lobby or interest group was putting it in there?