PHOTOS: (TOP TO BOTTOM REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE; NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH802 25 FEBRUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6583 science.org SCIENCENEWS | IN DEPTH
Biden gets pans and praise for
dividing top science positions
Francis Collins named as science adviser and Alondra
Nelson as head of White House science office
U.S. GOVERNMENTP
resident Joe Biden’s decision to
name two people to temporarily fill
the top science advice post in his
administration—a job historically
held by one appointee—is drawing
mixed reactions from the U.S. research
community, including opposing takes from
two former presidential science advisers.
Biden said last week he
is “doubling down on sci-
ence” by appointing geneti-
cist Francis Collins, former
director of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH),
to serve as the president’s
science adviser and social
scientist Alondra Nelson,
deputy director of the
White House Office of Sci-
ence and Technology Policy,
to serve as OSTP director.
Both jobs were held by ge-
neticist Eric Lander, who
announced on 7 February
he was resigning after a
White House investigation
found “credible evidence”
that Lander had bullied
and disrespected staffers.
Biden gave no time-
line for nominating a
permanent replacement
for Lander, who took of-
fice in May 2021. (Neither
Collins nor Nelson is in the
running, sources say.) In
the meantime, Biden said
this temporary arrange-
ment would “allow OSTP
and [my] science and tech-
nology agenda to move
seamlessly forward under
proven leadership.”
Others, however, aren’t
sure the new arrangement is a good idea.
“I don’t understand it, and it doesn’t
make any sense to me,” says Neal Lane, an
emeritus physics professor at Rice Univer-
sity who served as former President Bill
Clinton’s science adviser while lead-ing OSTP in the late 1990s. Lane calls
it “an unprecedented experiment” that
could weaken the office’s ability to serve
the president.
B u t Jo h n Ho l d r e n , a p h y s i c i s t w h o s e r v e d
in both roles under former President
Barack Obama, doesn’t see the division of
labor as a problem. “I think both Alondra
and Francis are very collegial people and
will work very well together,” Holdren says.
“If the president wants
advice in domains where
Francis is not an expert, I
have no doubt that he will
talk to Alondra. I don’t see
any glitches.”
Collins, who led NIH for
12 years before stepping
down in December 2021,
will provide advice on “all
things science,” says an
OSTP spokesperson, and
will co-chair the Presi-
dent’s Council of Advisors
on Science and Technol-
ogy. Collins will also work
on two of Biden’s research
priorities: establishing a
new biomedical research
agency, the Advanced Re-
search Projects Agency
for Health (ARPA-H), and
reinvigorating the Cancer
Moonshot, which Biden
led as Obama’s vice presi-
dent. Collins will not re-
port to Nelson, the OSTP
spokesperson says.
Nelson would be the
first Black woman and
first social scientist to
lead OSTP. Trained as a
sociologist, she was presi-
dent of the Social Science
Research Council before
coming to OSTP 1 year ago
as deputy director for science and society,
where she managed programs to improve
scientific integrity, broaden participation
in science and engineering, and ensure eq-
uitable access to new technologies.
Nelson’s promotion allows her to con-By Jeffrey MervisAlondra Nelson (top) and Francis
Collins (bottom) will share jobs
previously held by Eric Lander, who
stepped down last week.More detailed industrial data on plastics
production, transport, and consumption
could also help nations curb pollution,
researchers say. But many countries allow
companies to keep such numbers private,
making it difficult to calculate how plastic
is moving through the economy and into
the environment. And no one systemati-
cally tracks that information. The Ocean
Conservancy, for example, has struggled to
find out how much recycled plastic firms
are using, Brandon says. Researchers are
still pondering which numbers would be
most useful, and how the treaty might help
make that information more available.
Negotiators will also confront a key ques-
tion: How much plastic pollution is too much?
It’s clear that plastic bags, discarded fishing
gear, and microplastics can kill wildlife, but
scientists are just beginning to figure out
how to calculate the risks. The treaty could
help catalyze such efforts, says Rochman,
who recently helped California regulators
devise protocols for setting microplastic
thresholds to protect people and ecosystems.
The political will to reduce plastic waste
will be much higher if it’s known to harm
humans, says Karen Raubenheimer, a policy
researcher at the University of Wollongong.
But she thinks any final agreement is un-
likely to call for hard caps on new plastic. “It
will be challenging in the short-term to stop
using virgin plastic,” Raubenheimer says.
A big reason is that many uses of plastic
are seen as essential. Single-use plastic items
are common in health care, for example, to
prevent contamination and infections, and
in the food industry to keep fruit, vegetables,
and other products from spoiling. Even dis-
posable bottles can be vital in areas without
clean water.
Negotiators might call for the reduction
or elimination of what UNEP has called
“unnecessary, avoidable and problematic
plastic,” such as single-use shopping bags,
takeout cutlery, or plastic beads in cosmet-
ics. But analysts say nations must also focus
on ways to reuse and recycle plastic materi-
als. Currently, researchers estimate that less
than 10% of plastic products are recycled.
Smarter product designs that drive better
waste management practices could boost
that number, reducing the demand for vir-
gin materials.
Trying to finalize the new treaty in just
2 years is “highly ambitious,” UNEP ad-
mits. But researchers who have watched the
plastic pile up are delighted that the talks
are even getting started. “People are put-
ting high level resources to try to solve this
problem in a way that we didn’t see a decade
ago,” says Kara Lavender Law, a physical
oceanographer at the Sea Education Associa-
tion. “It’s actually astonishing.” j