{"id":168,"date":"2010-10-07T23:02:05","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T22:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/2010\/10\/07\/rally_to_the_cause_of_science\/"},"modified":"2014-05-11T14:58:13","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T13:58:13","slug":"rally_to_the_cause_of_science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/2010\/10\/07\/rally_to_the_cause_of_science\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally to the Cause of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Science is Vital<\/a> Campaign has caught the grim mood of the scientific community and focused the energy of opposition to light a fire of protest.<\/p>\n

The campaign petition was gathering about 1,000 signatures a day just after the launch two weeks ago but that rate has more than doubled in the past couple of days so that — astonishingly — the tally<\/a> now stands at over 20,700 signatures.\u00a0Temporarily at least, the law of conservation of momentum has been broken.<\/p>\n

Many of the people who have signed up in support will be gathering in King Charles Street opposite Her Majesty’s Treasury at 2 pm on Saturday to register their protest<\/a> in person. We had our penultimate planning meeting tonight, just across the road in the Red Lion pub. The mood was buoyant — for now. All the pieces seem to be falling into place. We had to finalise the list of speakers, sort out stewards to marshal the crowds and make arrangements to put placards together.<\/p>\n

\"Science<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the smiles around the table, the purpose remains serious. The risk of substantial damage to the UK science base\u00a0\ufeffis palpable, not just from budget cuts<\/a>,\u00a0but also from the Government’s immigration cap<\/a>. The case for science as a solution — not a contributor — to the country’s economic woes has been made again<\/a> and again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But words will not be enough. It will take people.<\/p>\n

Scientists and engineers, and those who believe in them, need to stand up to mark their opposition to the folly of cuts that can only injure the reputation of the UK as a centre of excellence and reduce our capacity to recover from the economic downturn. We need to show our passion and our commitment to the enterprise of investigation and innovation.<\/p>\n

I will be there. Will you?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Many thanks to Della Thomas for the photo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Science is Vital Campaign has caught the grim mood of the scientific community and focused the energy of opposition to light a fire of protest. The campaign petition was gathering about 1,000 signatures a day just after the launch … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}