Concerns outside strict professional lines
I was educated as a chemist, and have been a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for over 40 years. As a benefit of membership, I receive the weekly newsmagazine of the ACS, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). C&EN used to have a strong pro-industry bias, but over the past decade or so has broadened its coverage both to include more academic science and to deal with a wider range of social and political issues with a chemical connection.
On July 10, 2006 the editor of C&EN wrote an editorial “Demonizing the Press� about the administration’s response to the New York Times’s expose that the NSA was monitoring domestic communications. The editorial provoked a firestorm of criticism from some readers of C&EN, contending that the magazine should stick to issues more directly related to chemistry.
The August 28 issue, which I’m just catching up with, has letters responding (pro and con) to these criticisms. Among those urging a narrow view, this quote is typical: “The editorials in this scientific magazine should offer some chemical or engineering news and opinions, not political views.�
There were more letters that took the other side, fortunately. Some brief but eloquent defenses of the importance of public engagement in chemistry or any profession:
“I would hope that being a knowledgeable contributor to the democratic process would be at least as important to chemists and engineers as being knowledgeable in their field.�
“…no scientist or engineer lives in a vacuum, and we must learn to have civil discourse on issues that affect us all.�
“…part of being a creative editor is … addressing issues that go beyond the narrowest confines of the profession… When C&EN no longer has an editor who believes that, and acts accordingly, it won’t be worthy of the American Chemical Society.�