Science advisors to US Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced off in a debate at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Both Democratic contenders and their Republican front-running rival, Senator John McCain, declined to take part in the discussion at the scientific gathering in Boston Saturday, an AAAS spokesman said.
But the challenge of appearing before a hall full of top scientists was taken up by Obama's young science advisor and senior vice president of the non-profit One Economy Corporation, Alec Ross; and by Clinton's advisor, Thomas Kalil, special assistant to the Chancellor for Science and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley.
The informal debate was greeted with keen interest by the audience, whose members sent hundreds of questions to the New York Times science reporter acting as moderator. The scientists' reactions to the answers, however, was subdued at best: Ross and Kalil each were applauded twice and briefly.
The two advisors showed that, while the two candidates' programs for science and technology were similar on many points, they were quite different in their approach.
Clinton and Obama propose doubling the federal budget for basic scientific research over a period of five years; investing heavily in technology to produce next-generation biofuels; and advancing the fight against global warming.