Image: Bill Foster
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Only a handful of physicists have reached the halls of Congress. Bill Foster, a particle physicist and businessman just elected as a Democrat to the House of Representatives from Illinois's newly drawn 11th district, wants this situation to change. The Harvard graduate knows he is one of few in any technical field to hold national office. Foster plans to use his time in the public spotlight to serve as an advocate for bringing more of his peers to Washington.
Although Foster left a career in the laboratory to pursue politics, science is never far from his mind. He says he is continually thinking of new ways to inject the rigor of science into the often messy give and take that is the essence of politics.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
Why did you decide to leave science and run for U.S. Congress?
I often say that I inherited the family's recessive gene for adult-onset political activism. My father was actually a chemist. He got a degree in chemistry from Stanford. He came back from the war unhappy that his work was being used to kill people.
When he came back from the war he decided he wanted to spend part of his life in service to his fellow man. He actually wrote a lot of the enforcement language behind the Civil Rights Act. Reading his papers after he passed away a few years ago was one of the things that triggered my thinking.
There's a fundamental question that everyone has to answer: What fraction of your life do you spend in service to your fellow man? It's not something that science helps you answer at all. It's one of these questions like, Who are you gong to marry? Science doesn't really help you with the question.
For me, the idea of not spending a significant fraction of my life in service to my fellow man did not feel right. And one of the highest-leverage ways to do that is to get elected to an office in the United States.
How will you utilize your scientific background to achieve your political goals?
It's very valuable when you're formulating policy to attach even a rough number to what's under discussion. That's an instinct that engineers and scientists have. In terms of getting the policy right, often you'll find that one of these arguments is quantitatively 10 or 100 times more important than all the others.
What did you study as a physicist?
It's high-energy particle physics, including working on the experiments that discovered the top quark.
There's a series of heavier and heavier quarks, and the pattern stops at the top quark. The top quark has an anomalous large mass, so many accelerators were built with the idea that they would be the one to discover the top quark.
And it was only the technology developed at FermiLab that would allow an accelerator to be built so that you'd have enough "oomph" to discover the top quark. Just having the accelerator isn't enough. You need detectors with the capability to handle the debris coming from the proton collisions.
The top quark was heavier than anyone really expected it to be. It was the last member of the last family of fundamental particles. If it had been missing, it would have been a bigger mystery. It closed the chapter, allowing scientists to think about what the ultimate structure of matter is. It was the last quark in the standard model of high-energy particle physics and so it was the last step along that path.
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23 Comments
Add CommentPrior to "anyone in Washington governing them" some pretty awful things happened to people at the hands of other people who happened to have a bigger sword and a stronger arm and the right friends. And people not governed from Washington had some pretty awful things happen to them during World War I and World War II. Seems to me the good old US of A has done a good job of governing from Washington for a couple of hundred years now. There have been some big mistakes and great difficulties, but we're getting better. Democracy is messy, but it's a lot better than the alternatives people have tried before. People left without a government generally get into trouble and end up being abused by a dictator. I'd choose democracy over a dictator anytime, how about you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe man decides to quit one career and start another, never an easy thing to do. And out of a felt need to serve, to give back. And all you can do is be cynical?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJerryhamlit
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are quite correct; this man is just exactly the type we need to be sending to Washington. First, he asks himself one of the most important questions that can be posed, “What fraction of your life do you spend in service to your fellow man?” Second, he is a scientist. It can be hoped that he can resist the downfalls of what we call politics these days. His words are the right ones at least.
Your cynicism is understandable. We have allowed our political system to be warped almost beyond recognition. But the simple fact is that, “We the People” have not only allowed it, we have accelerated it by our lack of true participation, and an “abdication of responsibility” you might say. As this is the second article this week regarding scientist/politicians at least there seems to be, possibly, a swing in the right direction.
We have spent the last four or five decades putting off important concerns for latter, considering that climate change, pollution, and dwindling resources seem to be nearly at the point of crisis, well, latter is now. Only by election of people like Mr. Foster, along with supporting them when they point out the hard decisions and attempt to act upon them will we be able to move forward without experiencing some rather significant disruptions of our society.
I would also point out that Foster doesn’t use tribal or nationalist language when he poses that very important question. By now it should be clear to all that ours is in fact a small planet, and we are a single species. Basic evolutionary theory and logic based philosophy prove that we should all be working together, and that if we don’t it will be to the detriment of our species.
Well, that’s my opinion.
It appears we are in agreement dubay.denis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would love to know the age (in calendar years) of people who place their views in public places. For example ... I'm 69 and a UC Berkeley grad, a Peace Corp Volunteer, a volunteered US Army medic in the Viet Nam conflict. I've been modestly successful in small business and presently I feel very distressed at the abandonment of the developmental needs of ALL American children ... their health and educational needs. Jerryhimlt is learned enough to have a close approximation of the formation of the earthly planet we live upon but clearly he finds no comfort in the blessings of of the life and the life-space he has been so graciously gifted. I hear the sounds of 'cynicism' and the 'cynic' barking out at the disturbances of the visible world; the word 'cynic' arrives into the English language from the Greek term for 'the barking grey dog' -- Kynosarge. It was/is a term to describe an agitated dog (person)that was experiencing threat or lack of attachment to the safety of their master's voice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the writer is over 40 yo then, I would suggest, that he just might be in the grip of an existential crisis --- for it should be clear to all of the readers of Scientific American that the future 30 years from now will be entirely unlike the prior 30 years.
Personally I am intrigued by the latent possibilities of having a Representative who has direct cognitive exposure to 'quantum entanglements' and 'single point fields' and the mathematics of uncertainty. God-willing, US Representative Mr Foster will also possess qualities capacities of affable, positive sustained eye-contact which are characteristic of individuals who are securely attached to their world of relationships.
A physicist, secure enough to switch zones of professional activity, might very well be capable of communicating the social-political implications of the 'quantum observer effects' to the fear-filled ears of less secure legislators ... and is music to my ears.
A small step in the right direction. This is great!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLOL jerry, you have no idea just how utterly wrong you are, do you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know Bill, not closely or well personally, but through an invention of his that I used for many years and through mutual friends at Fermi Labs, where he did much of his physics work.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe invention was the Electronic Theater Controls theater lighting controller. This is a computer that controls theater lighting. If you have seen some of the spectacular shows with lights swooping and dancing, changing color, bursting like fireworks, and upstaging the performance you have seen what these controllers can do.
Bill Foster invented the ETC Controller when he was in his early 20ies and he and his brother built that into one of the leading companies in the world.
Then he went to Fermi Lab to do something really difficult; particle physics.
I spoke with him the first time that he ran for Congress and never met a man so well informed and so thoughtful about so many different subjects.
It wouldn't surprise me if he is actually the most intelligent man in Congress. I just hope that some of his colleagues in Washington listen to him. He has a lot to bring to the discussion.
Yes he is a real scientist. It was probably for this reason he voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which would create a Cap and trade system. His science training overcame forces to conform to party lines. Attaboy! GK
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould somebody please ban G. Karst and his denialist crackpottery?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood Step with Great Direction..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am disappointed that he got elected again - as much as he claimed he was independent, he was a Nancy Pelosi puppet. I would never vote for him again, and due to election redistricting in Illinois, he was given a new district that barely knew his record.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe said in a speech he gave in a scientific forum soon after he lost his last election that it was a shame that he found himself serving when there were heated issues being vote upon. When will there never be heated issues to vote on? Why would we want to elect someone who doesn't want to vote on heated issues?
Very unfortunate that he is back in congress.
Next time congress votes on the value of Pi, we can count on Foster to make the correct choice. As for tax increases and health care bills we need to pass so we can find out what's in them, I don't care if he's a cannonized Catholic saint, he's a Democrat and about as trustworthy as Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangle, Dan Rostenkowski, Al "No Controlling Authority" Gore, Jim McGreevy, John Edwards, Arlen Specter, Elliot Spitzer, John "I voted for it beore I voted against it" Kerry, Barney "Brothel" Frank, Jim Guy Tucker, Rod Blagojevich, Anthony Weiner, Barack "I'll cut the deficit in half" Obama"...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's too bad we can't get those "Wall Street" physicists in there with the "science of money"...I follow all of this used to write a bit of code myself and this video is excellent as the Quants, aka the physicists on Wall Street and their mathematical formulas. They actually speak out and tell you that some of the information in their mathematical formulas is fiction. Rare you hear this but we would be better off with more of them back in science for sure and enough of this as when the arrays of data can no longer be queried, denormalized, etc. to make a buck we have a problem and we are just about there with uncovering fiction and some dirty code along the way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFormulas are created for "desired" results all too often with the call for accuracy getting behind the door it seems.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.hk/2012/09/quants-alchemists-of-wall-street-video.html
I call it Algo Duping for my coin on some of this and gee I hope few we have in Congress can maybe teach the others a few things if they are not too far gone.
Attack of the Killer Algorithms at 47 chapters - and Algo Duping at the link below.
http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/
This is good..compared to what we have in there for the most part, someone with some physicist background as he will prove valuable and he's a real physicist and not like the ones on Wall Street that do "pseudo science", writing formulas to make money. If you watch this video you will see what I mean and there are 4 all together that will educate you on how physicists go to work on Wall Street and write complicated mathematical algorithms, aka business models and I would rather see them in real science any day for sure. On Wall Street with their work, we get a lot of Algo Duping and they take our money, so again this is a good thing if any of his ideas and education rubs off for sure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/
I'll take intelligence over faith anytime, any day. With careful attention and deliberate action, there is a slim chance the human race might survive its tendency to express its stupid gene.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientist in Congress? Yes Indeed, let's repeat history!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of our nations scientists and great lifetime achievers Senator Harrison H. Schmitt served. He was a geophysicist, was the one of the last men on the moon and later served his country in Congress.
So go there some should, and if they can gather the support and the funding to run, then I say, "go for it."
I think it's pretty funny that this article, all about challenging what we think members of Congress should look like (i.e., not just lawyers, but also scientists), goes ahead, without any sense of irony, and uses the word "statesmen" in the title.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am pleased Bill Foster will be in Washington. Maybe he will be instrumental in revisiting the thorium alternative to uranium reactors as a safe nuclear solution to our energy needs. Here is a link to the Weinberg Foundation, a leading advocate group based in UK. Dr. Alvin Weinberg was in charge of the US thorium reactor at Oak Ridge in the '60s. It was shut down in the '70s by Nixon & company:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/thorium/
A short thorium mention on Environmental News Network:
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/43630
A nice 30 minute thorium promotional on you-tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ9Ll5EX1jc
"Prior to "anyone in Washington governing them" some pretty awful things happened..." That's the officially accepted history. Problem is, applying scientific method to the available evidence and thereby finding cause to question the orthodox history is a political crime. In the US it will only cost you your job and reputation. In several European "democracies" it will land you in prison. The US Government has actively and aggressively supported that oppression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Would somebody please ban G. Karst and his denialist crackpottery?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow! That's collegial scientific critique! Strange how you use the same derision as the forum that sent you here.
"there is a slim chance the human race might survive its tendency to express its stupid gene."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNever underestimate the awesome raw power of human stupidity.
I endorse this. My interest is in serious mental illnesses. My 20 year old schizophrenic son killed himself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUp to now politicians and bureaucrats with no scientific background have passed mental health laws and funded useless social services that harm the lives or abandon seriously mentally ill citizens.
Governments seem unaware of the lastest scientific brain research that unequivocally has demonstrated that schizophrenia, manic depression and related disorders are biological brain diseases. Funding into scientific brain research could find the root of these diseases and the cure could follow.
Sociology doesn't cut it and should be abandoned in any research funding. A scientist would know this,