WASHINGTON, D.C.—People like Ashley Morris just don’t do this stuff. American scientists research and write and teach. They vote, maybe sign a petition if they’re feeling especially indignant, but that’s it for most of them: politics are for the political scientists, not people running actual laboratories. Morris’s brand of march is a family hike on the trails of a Tennessee park. On Saturday afternoon, though, she will be walking unfamiliar terrain: the streets of Washington, D.C. And the president of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, a professor who teaches genetics at Middle Tennessee State University, will be carrying the first demonstration sign of her life. “My own young children recognize the value and importance of science,” Morris, 42, said Wednesday. “I march to show the administration that they should, too.”The ascent of President Donald Trump has spawned an unusual wave of political activism.The pink “pussyhats” of the massive women’s marches in January are now giving way to white lab coats. Thousands of scientists, science educators and professionals in scientific fields, plus thousands of people who appreciate them, will participate Saturday — Earth Day — in more than 300 scheduled March for Science events around the world, including one in Toronto and the main event in Washington.The scientist-activist is far from a new concept; American scientists have been prominently involved in policy battles of all kinds, like the movements against dangerous pesticides and nuclear proliferation. Yet never before Trump have they felt compelled to take to the streets en masse in defence of science itself.“It’s up to all of us to reclaim the importance of science and evidence,” said Kamyar Enshayan, 57, an agricultural engineer and director of the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Energy and Environmental Education.By the ...
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