“Scientists who go to Washington as scientists generally leave screaming,” he says. “It’s totally alien to them. They want policy to be made on the basis of logic and scientific facts, and that’s probably just a will-o’-the-wisp.” But for whatever reason, the researchers went happily back to their labs, leaving war to the generals and politics to the politicians. And in so doing, says Cowan, they blew a chance for access and influence that they may never have again.
