Selected from among the brightest young scientists in the
country, they travel
to Washington, like so many Drs. Smith, to serve their country
and illuminate Congress with the bright light of scientific truth. And then . . . no one listens to them.


Placed as official advisers to our congressional representatives, these fellows’ disillusionment is swift and merciless. “It’s an exercise in futility to get science across in Congress,” says Raphael Sagarin, a marine ecologist who just finished his year