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It takes both: Sweeping inspirational calls to move the public and generate support, AND detailed plans for how science will be done. In the 1st category we have, in addn to JFK calling for humanity to go to the moon, Nixon calling for a War on Cancer, Obama on brain science and FDR launching NIH

But the Vannevar Bush / Kilgore struggle over NSF, and the fight over decades after that at NSF and NIH to defend scientific integrity and ensure scientific input is given weight where it matters — that matters too. The structure of govt matters (and that’s one thing this admin has gutted).

One reason @colesci.bsky.social and I may come from slighly different places on this is that he sees the space science program more clearly than me, and I probably have seen the biomedical world more than him.

And governance of agencies and advocacy is somewhat different for large projects and “let 1000 flowers bloom” science