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Two Nobel Prize winners are among the scientists advising Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in his bid to capture the White House, a blog is reporting.

Harold Varmus and Peter Agre helped the Illinois senator craft his answers to science-policy questions put to the presidential contenders by Science Debate 2008, a group of academic and business leaders, according to Wired.

Varmus won the Nobel in 1989 for his discovery of retroviral oncogenes in cells, the idea that all cells have the potential to turn into cancer. Now president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Varmus formerly directed the National Institutes of Health.

Agre took the Nobel four years later for discovering regulating "channels" that transport water across cell membranes, a process necessary for all life forms, according to a press release from Johns Hopkins University, where Agre directs the Malaria Research Institute.

Obama's third science guru is Gilbert Omenn of the University of Michigan and the biotech Amgen. A doctor, Omenn has criticized creationists, according to Wired. University of Chicago astrophysicist Don Lamb, a former NASA mission scientist, and Stanford plant biologist Sharon Long are also on Obama's science team, the blog reports. Lamb has voiced concern over NASA's research budget and privatized space travel, while Long has been a financial supporter of both Obama and Hillary Clinton, Wired says.

In his replies to Science Debate 2008, Obama emphasized his support for gene and stem-cell research, genetic modification of plants and expanded NASA research, among other things.

Varmus told a Scientific American podcast two years ago that "the tendency of the current administration [is] to undermine science in a variety of ways that range from the fiscal to the regulatory and the political."

The Obama campaign, the scientists or spokespeople for their institutions didn’t immediately respond to e-mails and calls about the Wired report. The Wired blog offers a snapshot of the advisors' political statements, campaign contributions and financial ties to industry.

(Image from Obama for America)

14 Comments

1. 1. tharriss 08:01 PM 9/18/08

   Well, I don't know what this country would do with actual intelligent, educated, rational people advising the president. It certainly would be something new.
   
   I suggest we fear the possibility of an intelligent, rational White House, and run Obama and company out of town in favor of the guy that invented the blackberry and that moose hunter lady. Then we'll almost be as well off as we are with our good friend, and fellow intellectual, GWB.

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2. 2. Chuck Darwin 02:58 AM 9/19/08

   How about some equal time here! This is all about Barack Obama. Who, exactly, is advising John McCain on science?
   
   
   
   Oh yeah. McSame doesn't believe or can't admit he believes in evolution, and Hockey Mom is a young-earth creationist who believes the Rapture is coming in our lifetime.
   
   Guess which candidates will be getting my vote?

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3. 3. RSMC 09:07 AM 9/19/08

   Yeah,....We need a good old game of: "My Scientist can beat up Your Scientist".

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4. 4. agenthucky 10:50 AM 9/19/08

   McCain is afraid of science, he was in a box 5 years without it.
   
   And Plainlin is afraid of information, remember?
   
   
   Tough choice this time around...

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5. 5. vanderleun 04:04 PM 9/19/08

   With all those brainacs how can he possibly lose, or even come close to losing?

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6. 6. descriptivemind 10:39 PM 9/19/08

   It is wonderful to know that Sen. Obama supports the Science community and Global Warming issues! He is honest and sincere! As for the wanna invade Iran, drill baby drill on a road to a bridge to nowhere........They cannot pull the wool over our eyes! Obama has my family vote!

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7. 7. ajhil 11:11 AM 9/20/08

   Imagine eight years of an informed, intelligent President, who respects scientitic expertise, complimented by a voting majority of Democrats in both houses of Congress! While Obama might not be able to reverse all of the damage that our current Moron in Chief has done, he might be able to correct a great deal of it. Any way I look at it, this is the most consequential election to occur in my sixty years on Earth. .

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8. 8. RSMC 12:04 PM 9/20/08

   Propaganda by Association: this is a technique of projecting positive or negative qualities (praise or blame) of a person, entity, object, or value (an individual, group, organization, nation, patriotism, etc.) to another to make the second more acceptable or to discredit it. It evokes an emotional response, which stimulates the target to identify with recognized authorities. - wikipedia

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9. 9. rohitcuny 06:17 PM 9/20/08

   I think it is important to notice that all scientists in question are biologists of one kind or another. The problem is that some of the issues where the Bush administration has been 'obstructive' are ethical and not scientific. Is it 'scientific' to abort an eight month old foetus? Is it scientific to clone a human? These are not scientific questions. I do not meant to diss Obama for consulting scientists - it is good that he is doing so. But there may be a slant here which has nothing to do with science. Ask yourself, should a biologist decide if we can experiment on chimps? Or is it an ethical issue?

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10. 10. rohitcuny 06:26 PM 9/20/08

    Jack to Jill, "Will you marry me?"
    Jill, "But do you love me?"
    Jack, "Well that is a scientific question. I will have to see my doctor, get an MRI, have my DNA analyzed. Then I can answer you question."
    Jill, "Don't bother! Here is your ring back."
    
    I myself think that Obama is a better candidate than the M-P team. But people do have to understand why the Palin-McCain team is drawing enthusiastic crowds. They appeal to the human feelings of many Americans.

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11. 11. gs_chandy 11:08 PM 9/21/08

    It would be extremely naive to expect that the opinions of Nobel prize-winners would win over the US electorate that had already proven it capacity for rational thinking by re-electing GW Bush and Gang in 2004, after they had already been proven to be liars and war criminals! Obama-Biden should also prepare for the 'Swift-boat tactics' now being prepared by the successors to Karl Rove, who are advising McCain+Palin.

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12. 12. citicrab 05:46 AM 9/23/08

    So the current administration is anti-science. Fine. Why then has it increased the NIH budget faster than Clinton? Is NIH involved with researching creationist concepts? Am I missing something?

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13. 13. citicrab 05:52 AM 9/23/08

    GWB is anti-science. Why has he increased the NIH budget more than Clinton? And what about financial support for science in general - has it dropped precipitously during his time in office, as one would expect from this bunch of religious fanatics looking to transform America into autocracy?

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14. 14. ounbbl 06:31 PM 9/23/08

    Teaching him nice evolutionistic eugenic id eas (as Adolf did in Europe). He will learn quick with Haavaad brain. I don't think whether he has an opinion about when life begins. If he is a democrat, he would not know the true answer like the ignorant liberal Supreme Court judges. (Or if he knows, he has to hide it to get the votes from those willing to tear apart a baby just to be born.)
    
    

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