Research!America today launched the 2006 Your Candidates ? Your Health Voter Guide -- a site designed to help voters figure out how the candidates seeking their support feel about scientific research. The group sent 10 questions on subjects such as the CDC budget and basic science funding to all House and Senate candidates. To find out how they responded, plug in your zip code.

This is an important and timely effort, with the US midterm elections coming up on November 7. We?ll be looking at the Bush Administration?s record on science in our October issue, so check our homepage and your mailboxes in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, the response rate by candidates to the Research!America questions so far seems fairly low, a spot check of my home zip code (10036) and The Scientist?s zip code (19106) this morning revealed. In my home district, only Jerry Nadler, my incumbent US representative, who is running unopposed, had responded. Neither my incumbent senator, Hillary Clinton, nor any of her opponents, had done so. And no one had responded in 19106.

If I have a criticism of the questions, they seem quite leading. It?s quite clear how Research!America would like candidates to respond: More money for basic science research. Where they offer space for open-ended answers for plans to increase such funding, no candidates seem to have responded.

But none of that should stop you from visiting the site, checking if your candidates have responded, and contacting them to urge them to do so.