This week saw such a panoply of US presidential pageantry and policy changes that even jubilant Democrats glued to the news struggled to keep track. So here is an important detail you may have missed.
President Joe Biden named Eric Lander, a globally renowned geneticist, as his chief scientific adviser or head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to use the official unwieldy title. What’s more, Mr Biden elevated the role into a cabinet position for the first time in US history. In plain English, scientific geekery was promoted.
To non-scientists, this might not be as obviously thrilling as seeing Lady Gaga sing the national anthem. But for both symbolic and practical reasons, it matters far more.