How the only sitting Congressperson endorsed by Taylor Swift honors the weird and silly science that saves lives

What do horseshoe crab blood, frog skins and rabbit thyroids have in common? Research conducted with all of these has led to breakthroughs that has saved tens of millions of lives.

I had the pleasure of attending this year's Golden Goose Award ceremony, which honors science that may have seemed obscure, or even silly, at the time, but that eventually led to breakthroughs and resulted in significant societal impact.

This year, honorees helped advance or discover: the usage of horseshoe crab blood extract for endotoxin testing; early evidence of autoimmunity; and the development of a simple solution to treat tens of millions of people with cholera.

Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN, who called that TSwift endorsement the "one of the great honors of his life") created the Golden Goose Award in 2012, and visibility for the awards has grown steadily each year. This year, 7 Congresspeople sponsored and attended the ceremony, which is now run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Also in attendance at the ceremony were AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows — PhD scientists and engineers who are learning about federal policymaking, and using their knowledge to address today's pressing scientific and societal challenges.

These 180 fellows are placed in executive-branch and legislative offices to ensure that science is effectively communicated to support the creation of impactful federal policies.

And the setting — the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building — wasn't too shabby, either.

Congrats to these scientists for following their weird and wonderful lines of inquiry over decades of research.

You can find more information here about this and past years' winners of the Golden Goose.