2013 State of the (Scientific) Union

(Adapted from last year's post, with updated data for 2013)

Did you watch President Barack Obama present the 2013 State of the Union address?

Source: Whitehouse.gov

Once again, I downloaded the text to the 2013 S.o.T.U. (Unfinished Tasks / Next Chapter), and compared it against the text from 2011 (Winning the Future) and 2012 (An America Built to Last). Now, I’m not a political pundit or a news analyst - I’m a scientist. So let's see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 366 days (leap year!).

Breakdown (# of each word in full text):

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23, 2013: 18

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10, 2013: 5

Gas - 2011: 1, 2012: 9, 2013: 7

Wind / Solar - 2011: 4, 2012: 3, 2013: 4

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3, 2013: 3

Batteries - 2011: 0, 2012: 2, 2013: 1

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Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 0

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 0

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9, 2013: 8

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2, 2013: 4

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1, 2013: 3

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4, 2013: 4

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2, 2013: 1

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College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15, 2013: 8

Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 2

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5, 2013: 5

Internet - 2011: 6, 2012: 1, 2013: 1

Cyber - 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 2

Jobs: 2011: 25, 2012: 33, 2013: 32

Exciting 2013 "one-offs" - Human Genome, drug development, battery materials, 'Space Race',  human brain, IBM, networks, climate change, NASA 'Mohawk Guy' (guest of the First Lady)

Is there a take-home message here? Does word count relate to the overall direction of the country? Probably not. Each speech is different: 2013 spent serious time on fiscal reform, job creation, foreign affairs, and domestic mass shooting incidents, while 2011 focused on education, business, and terrorism, and 2012 dealt with global politics, Congressional reform, and taxes.

Still, science and scientific policy seem to be waning in recent Presidential politics. Ironically, energy production and storage now garner increased mentions while R&D, education, and biofuel fall away.

Readers: Did I miss anything? How'd you react to the speech? Let me know in the comments.