2015 State of the (Scientific) Union

(Adapted from last year's post with 2015 data)

Did you watch President Barack Obama present tonight's 2015 State of the Union address?

Source: Whitehouse.gov

I downloaded the text to the 2015 S.o.T.U. (Turning Point), and compared it against the text from 2011 (Winning the Future), 2012 (An America Built to Last), 2013 (Unfinished Tasks / Next Chapter), and 2014 (Opportunity for All).

I’m not a political pundit or a news analyst - I *am* a scientist (see below). So let's see how certain scientific themes grew or shrunk over the past 365 days.

Breakdown (# of each word in full text):

Energy – 2011: 9, 2012: 23, 2013: 18, 2014: 8, 2015: 2

Oil – 2011: 2, 2012: 10, 2013: 5, 2014: 6, 2015: 4

Gas - 2011: 1, 2012: 9, 2013: 7, 2014: 4, 2015: 2

Wind / Solar - 2011: 4, 2012: 3, 2013: 4, 2014: 2, 2015: 3

Nuclear – 2011: 5, 2012: 3, 2013: 3, 2014: 5, 2015: 5

Batteries - 2011: 0, 2012: 2, 2013: 1, 2014: 0, 2015: 0

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Biotech / Biomed / Biofuel – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 0, 2014: 0, 2015: 0

Chemical – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 0, 2014: 1, 2015: 0

Tech / technology – 2011: 12, 2012: 9, 2013: 8, 2014: 6, 2015: 3

Science / scientist – 2011: 7, 2012: 2, 2013: 4, 2014: 1, 2015: 6

Engineering – 2011: 3, 2012: 1, 2013: 3, 2014: 1, 2015: 0
Math – 2011: 3, 2012: 0, 2013: 2, 2014: 1, 2015: 1

Research – 2011: 9, 2012: 4, 2013: 4, 2014: 4, 2015: 2

Development – 2011: 1, 2012: 2, 2013: 1, 2014: 0, 2015: 2
Carbon – 2011: 0, 2012: 0, 2013: 1, 2014: 3, 2015: 1

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College / Universities– 2011: 12, 2012: 15, 2013: 8, 2014: 12, 2015: 14

Health – 2011: 8, 2012: 5, 2013: 5, 2014: 8, 2015: 8

Internet – 2011: 6, 2012: 1, 2013: 1, 2014: 0, 2015: 3

Cyber – 2011: 0, 2012: 1, 2013: 2, 2014: 1, 2015: 2

Jobs – 2011: 25, 2012: 33, 2013: 32, 2014: 23, 2015: 19

Interesting 2015 one-offs: "I'm not a scientist", universal child care, $0 community college (?), "Google, eBay, and Tesla", Precision Medicine Initiative, solar fuels, Instagram from Space, stopping hackers, opening Cuban relations, Pope Francis' "small steps."

Is there a take-home message here? Does word count relate to the overall direction of the country? Probably not. Each speech is different: 2015 brought middle-class values, international relations, and Presidential legacies; while 2014 spoke to middle-class unemployment, higher ed, and equality issues

Still, I'm saddened that, in a speech many journalists billed as a push for education and technology-based jobs, the time spent on those subjects by this President appears to be dwindling.

Readers: Did I miss anything? Let's discuss it in the comments!

Elemental Roll-Call

Inspired by posts from JessTheChemist and the esteemed Dr. Lowe, I've tallied mine below.
(N.B. I came up in an organometallic lab where we made many precursors from scratch...)

Hydrogen (obvious)
Helium (carrier gas)
Lithium (Li-Hal exchange)
Carbon (Darco)
Nitrogen
Oxygen (ozonolysis)
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminum (form'n Friedel Crafts salts)
Sulfur (mercury spills)
Chlorine (oxidant)
Argon
Potassium (N-K form'n)
Manganese (reductant)
Iron (reductant)
Nickel (Ra nickel)
Copper (forming amalgams)
Zinc (organozincs, reductant)
Bromine (distilled, even...yuck!)
Palladium (hydrogenation, salts)
Silver (foil, to make salts)
Indium (reductant)
Iodine
Cerium (cross-coupling...failed)
Samarium (to make SmI2)
Platinum (hydrogenation, catalysts)
Gold (dissolve in aqua regia)
Mercury (old pressure eqpt)

So, I count 28. Pitiful against 118, but a varied lot nonetheless.