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Scientists began to play a more prominent role in telling the American people about bioterrorism this week, as the Bush administration responded to heavy criticism of its initial public statements on anthrax.

John Marburger, the president's new science adviser, aims to assume a high-profile role. Credit: BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LAB.

Top researchers, including John Marburger, the president's newly confirmed science adviser, and Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined senior members of the administration in public appearances. As well as assuming a more visible public role in discussing bioterrorism attacks, the researchers took part in top-level meetings in Washington to plan a response to anthrax or other agents that might be directed at the United States.

Until about a week ago, administration officials, such as Tom Ridge, head of homeland security, and Tommy Thompson, the health secretary, often spoke alone, providing conflicting information — and occasional misstatements were blamed on their lack of scientific expertise.

Responding to the change in emphasis, Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that it was “better late than never”. Alberts, who was strongly critical of some initial government responses to the bioterror attacks, added that the administration had been “ambiguous about who is in charge” of its scientific assessment of the crisis.

But with Marburger confirmed by the Senate on 23 October as Bush's science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Alberts and others are hoping for a change.

“What makes sense now is a close partnership between Ridge's homeland security office and the OSTP,” Alberts said. And the partnership did not take long to materialize: on 29 October, Marburger appeared alongside Ridge at his daily public news briefing, which was also attended by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Army.

But Ridge's office, which was created after the 11 September attacks to guard the home front in the war against terrorism, has only around a dozen senior staff and limited authority over agencies such as the CDC, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the defence department.

Already, there is evidence of turf battles among these organizations, as they respond to the anthrax attacks. One scientific source says there have been significant breakdowns in communication among some of the agencies.

As the bioterrorism issue develops, concern remains over still-unfilled scientific posts in the administration, including those of director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Fauci's emergence over the past week as a prominent spokesman for the administration on public-health matters has fuelled speculation that he may be about to take the NIH position.