Physicist Foster wins House seat
In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
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"Back in the laboratory, this is what we'd say was a pretty successful experiment," Foster told about 200 supporters at an Aurora banquet hall. "I will be your voice in Congress to make change happen."
I'm not entirely certain what this will mean for November and if it was truly a proxy battle between McCain and Obama, but I am very happy to see the word "Physicist" being used to describe the winner.
Scientists have a certain way of looking at the world, an ability to look at the empirical data and make their decisions based upon that data, which is becoming ever more necessary. (The Inverse Square Blog, which has become one of my regular reads, covers this issue quite well, and far more eloquently than I can.) The viewpoint isn't entirely limited to scientists, and scientists are no more immune to ideological blinders than the rest of us at times. But through their training, it is less likely that their choices will be driven by bad science, or no science at all.
And so, to see more scientists in political office is a very good thing to my mind.
Oh, and it makes this article a timely one.
