Sir

Your News story “Scientists slam Bush record” (Nature 427, 663; 2004) reports on the statement by 63 prominent scientists accusing the Bush administration of “misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge”. John Marburger, the administration's head of science and technology policy, quickly responded to the initiative from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) by dismissing the move as political and simply the result of a few individuals having their “feathers ruffled”, according to the New York Times.

A similar response greeted Congressman Henry Waxman's like-minded report last August.

The administration's response to the UCS initiative shows that nothing short of a broad-based condemnation will deter this administration's misuse of science.

We are PhD students and postdocs at Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, who are attempting to publicize the widespread alarm of scientists at the Bush administration's use of science (http://www.scienceinpolicy.org). We have examined a broad range of environmental issues and uncovered a pervasive pattern of misuse, suppression and contradiction of science, including that performed by the administration's own researchers.

This is not about a few “ruffled feathers”. At the time of writing, more than 1,000 scientists, from all 50 US states and from around the world, have signed our statement decrying the Bush administration's misuse of science.

Many of us are publicly funded researchers who feel that, if the current US administration is abusing science to justify its policies, we have a moral responsibility to speak out.

We invite you to join in these efforts to restore scientific integrity to US policy-making.