The presidential candidates on science

Developing an economic competitiveness strategy or climate-change-mitigation policy will inevitably challenge whoever wins in November, points out Shawn Lawrence Otto. It would be nice, he suggests, to know that the chief executive had done his homework.

A Minnesota-based screenwriter, known for the movie House of Sand and Fog, Otto is also a founding organizer of a movement to put science and technology front and center by petitioning both major national parties to engage in dedicated science debates.