Concerns about National Academy of Sciences and Scientific Dissent

Peter Wood

Introductory note: NAS president Peter Wood sent the following letter by email on December 9, 2015 to California members of the National Academy of Sciences. 
 
Dear Members of the National Academy of Sciences,

This is an NAS to NAS letter—which requires some “disambiguation.”  I am president of the National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, and whose organizers apparently didn’t give much thought to the space already occupied by those initials by the National Academy of Sciences, founded 124 years earlier.  I’ll defer to the Academy’s seniority by reserving NAS in what follows for the body of scientists who incorporated during President Lincoln’s tenure.  The National Association of Scholars is a broad-based group of academics that includes professors in the humanities and social sciences (I’m an anthropologist) as well as the natural sciences.....Also, we want to bring to your attention our serious concerns about the current state of discourse in the sciences. .....To Read More.....