David Douglass Quotes
As a physicist, I can state that none of the 18 physicists who signed the Statement works in this field; nor to my knowledge has ever published a paper on this subject.
Douglass, David H. "Nobel Laureates and Climate Change." American Thinker, 2015.
This is a very material quotation with regard to Congress creating science-related policies and legislation. The members of Congress know the least about scientific matters than almost anything else that they have to legislate about. So typically they rely on scientific experts. Scientists are witnesses at Congressional hearings and often the political, polarized staff arrange to have scientists who disagree in something. They both have PhDs in the field, but one may be a great scientists and the other, a lightweight. This is where Alverez’s point becomes so critical. The Congress and staff have to learn how to differentiate between a “second rater” or a “Fermi” one of the great physicists of all time.
The English Language has been in use for over 1000 years. English and English Speaking scientists have been active througout that time. Yet at the time that Wulf pointed this out, the actual word "Scientist" had been in use for less than a century.
David H. Douglass (born 1932) is an American physicist at the University of Rochester.
