THE CHEAT SHEET. Cedric Villani, and the future of science in politics

You’ve perhaps been too preoccupied with the IPL to notice, but newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron’s party Le Republique en marche! has nominated Cedric Villani as a candidate for the upcoming French legislative election.

Villani is a French mathematician, and winner of the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel of maths. He is also something of a “maths evangelist”, working to popularise the subject in the wider world. He has given a TED talk titled “What’s So Sexy About Math?” And he will now stand for election from a Parisian suburban constituency.

It’s too early to say, but consider this: Paris has more mathematicians than any other city, and more streets with mathematicians’ names! And France has more Fields medallists per inhabitant than any other country. It’s fair to say that scientists are minor celebrities in France.

Because a mathematician — or any scientist — contesting for public office is always cause for celebration. Many of today’s global problems can arguably be traced to the absence of a scientific temper in politicians, and in fact, a worrisome “anti-science” mindset is gaining ground. So, it’s good to see the scientific community pushing back, and scientists embracing public life.

You bet. In the US, where the election of Donald Trump has opened the floodgates for an outpouring of anti-science rhetoric, a group called 314 Action, named after the first three digits of the number pi, is campaigning to get as many scientists elected in the 2018 mid-term elections. More generally, on April 22, Earth Day, rallies and marches, collectively called the March for Science, were held in over 600 cities around the world.

In an ideal world, it would certainly be above partisan politics. But when politicians and policymakers pointedly ignore science while framing policies and pursue ideological agendas that are regressive or endanger the world, scientists must wade in — to let facts and data triumph over emotions. Then again, science is already caught up in the political and economic process. And science funding is inextricably linked to innovation and future economic stability

That’s a colossal overstatement. There have been instances in the past when societies experimented with technocratic leadership. In the early 20th century, the so-called technocracy movement in the US and Canada proposed replacing politicians and businesspeople with scientists and engineers who had the technical expertise. But arguably the best advertisement for scientists in politics today is Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds a PhD in quantum chemistry.

Abysmal. We may have had scientists in top office — APJ Abdul Kalam as President, Raja Ramanna as minister of state for defence — and as scientific advisers to ministers, but never one that ran for public office. Indian officialdom only acknowledges scientific talent in the nuclear and defence realms. It’s fair to say Villani wouldn’t stand an earthly chance of winning an Indian election: as mathematicians might say, it’s a highly improbable event.

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