Philip Ball
Not a lot of time has passed since Donald Trump’s election as US president, but science is already under attack. Most recently, to the horror of most scientists, climate-change sceptic Scott Pruitt has been appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Such moves are not (quite) unheard of. In 2007, a House of Representatives committee concluded that “the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.”