Ben's List

There is a "reverse snobbery" that keeps researchers out of politics, says Vernon Ehlers, a physicist and a former Republican representative from Michigan, in The New York Times. Ehlers, who recently retired, and another physicist who also served in the House, Bill Foster (D-Ill.), formed a bipartisan political action committee to counter that effect. Called Ben Franklin's List, the committee aims to encourage scientists and engineers to run for office. "Scientist, politician, patriot," Foster says of Franklin to the Times. "It's all on-message." There are other organizations, like the National Academy of Sciences and Scientists and Engineers for America, that encourage scientists to enter public life, the Times adds.