Some activists registered people to vote. Others urged visitors to stamp their cash with political messages. Daniel McDonald was collecting poop.

The University of California San Diego researcher was among more than 1,000 scientists, data geeks and everyday people to attend the March for Science at Waterfront Park on Saturday, the second annual drive to celebrate knowledge and connect data to everyday life.

McDonald was staffing a booth promoting American Gut, a self-proclaimed citizen science project that aims to sequence and study millions of donated stools to better understand how individual human microbiomes can save lives.

The scientific director of the American Gut project said research like his is critical, and grants from sources like the National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency are drying up.


“Science generates innovation, which generates new economies,” he said.

The 2018 march, which unfolded in hundreds of other cities across the nation on Saturday, was nowhere near as well-attended as the inaugural event a year ago, when 15,000 people paraded through downtown San Diego to support scientific research.

But the organizers, speakers and attendees this year were every bit as passionate about what they see as a need to shield science from political influence and make sure public policies are based on evidence rather than ideology.

1 / 11 With the Star of India in the background, people begin to march south on North Harbor Drive during the San Diego March for Science. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 11 Science majors from California State University San Marcos and Palomar College, from left, Dakotah Shore, Jillian Caputo, Raven Klee, and Jody McAfee, holds signs during the San Diego March for Science at Waterfront Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 11 Dakotah Shore, a science major at Palomar College, holds a sign during the San Diego March for Science at Waterfront Park. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 11 Hundreds of people participating in the San Diego March for Science make their way north on Pacific Highway. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 11 While wearing a T-rex costume, Alex Reiss, a UCSD lab manager, participates in the San Diego March for Science on North Harbor Drive. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 11 Alex Reiss, a UCSD lab manager, has to replace the batteries for the electric fan that keeps his T-rex costume inflated while another T-rex costumed marcher walks past him during the San Diego March for Science on North Harbor Drive. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 11 Penelope O’Sullivan, 6, and her brother Gabriel O’Sullivan, 7, look at a human brain at the UCSD Neuroscience Outreach Program’s booth. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 11 Muscle sensors wired to the right hand of Sebastian Rivard, 6, picks up the electrical pulses in his hand muscles when he moves them sending an electrical signal that activates a mechanical claw, right, as a demonstration of how our brains control our muscles at the UCSD Neuroscience Outreach Program’s booth. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 11 Hundreds of people participating in the San Diego March for Science make their way north on Pacific Highway. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 11 Hundreds of people participating in the San Diego March for Science make their way north on Pacific Highway. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 11 A marcher holds a sign as he and hundreds of other people make their way north on Pacific Highway. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)


They spoke about how science can save lives, create new industries and improve the human condition. They talked about pushing for explanations about arcane and routine questions that can spark innovations that change the world.

“Science is going to be political, but it doesn’t have to be partisan,” said Mary Canady, one of the march organizers and the co-founder of a newly established nonprofit called San Diego For Science. “We tell people what the important issues are when looking at candidates.”

While speakers at the March for Science were largely non-partisan, some marchers carried signs criticizing President Donald Trump as anti-science because he has called climate change a hoax, threatened to cut funding for research and dubbed unwelcome information “fake news.”

“Science is important, not only to science but to the world,” said Robbie Todd, a professional photographer from North Park who said he came to support research. “To me, science and art go hand in hand because they both work toward proving things. It seems like today science is under attack.”


Many Trump supporters, who did not appear to attend the march in great numbers, credit the president for reining in wasteful spending and confronting what they see as a biased media landscape.

Despite the attention to activism over protest, the march was overtly political.

Some of the signs hoisted by marchers Saturday conveyed messages such as “Make Science, Not War,” “Trust the Scientific Method — Not Politicians” and “No Science, No Beer.”

Emily Knight, a volunteer with the activist group Represent San Diego, attended the march to promote an effort to reduce the influence of money in politics by stamping messages like “This Bill Shall Not Be Used To Bribe Politicians” directly onto dollar bills.


“An average of 875 people will see your bill over its lifetime,” Knight told one woman who stopped by the booth to investigate the campaign. “This is completely legal, but make sure you don’t stamp it in the center.”

David Christian, a volunteer with the activist group Indivisible San Diego, was handing out flyers for March To Vote San Diego, a mass appeal scheduled May 19 to promote participation in the California primary election scheduled June 5.

Christian said he is not worried that the event next month could get overlooked amid the March for Science, the March for Our Lives anti-gun violence demonstrations in April and the Women’s March in January.

“Each march addresses a different vital function,” he said. “It’s not a matter of too much.”


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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald