By Jim Tankersley
There's a difference between a Nobel-Prize-winning physicist and your garden variety cabinet nominee. That difference: nerdiness. And we mean that in the best possible way.
Witness this fantastically detailed video posted on the change.gov website, official online home of the Obama transition team. In it, Nobel-winning energy secretary nominee Steven Chu -- a former Stanford University professor and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory director -- fields web-submitted questions.
His answers span nearly 14 minutes, touching on the impacts of global warming by degrees of temperature, the best historical comparisons for the current push to overhaul America's energy supply through scientific innovation (German fertilizer, you might be surprised to know) and the need for a national and perhaps global electric transmission grid, which he says "you don't need to be a rocket scientist" to understand.
"What is in the root of science is wanting to understand how the world around us works," Chu says near the end. Watch for yourself -- you may find yourself understanding a few things better, whether or not you agree with his policy positions.
Comments
Energy policy rooted in science?
I thought energy policy was the job of energy company executives.
Oh, that's right, that track didn't play out too well.
Imagine how much easier Chu's tasks would be if we weren't in the Bush Depression.
Posted by: Bubba ✔ | January 17, 2009 11:57 AM