Secret Science

The U.S. government employs what may be the most talented and accomplished scientific workforce on the planet. More than 60,000 scientists across 20-plus agencies study every topic under the sun, from curing cancer to strengthening national defense to managing forests to mapping the solar system. All this is done on behalf of you and me, the taxpaying public.

Yet it’s increasingly difficult to know what our publicly funded scientists are up to. Over the past few decades, one federal agency after another has thrown up barriers limiting the media’s access to researchers. Staff members at the Energy Department’s national laboratories have told me they are afraid they will be punished if they speak on the record, and in some cases, they’ve been told not to talk to the press, even about their own research.

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