President Obama's March 9 executive order overturning the Bush administration's limitations on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research signified the end of the Bush administration's much criticized "war on science," during which technology policy was held hostage to conservative ideology and biomedical research was viewed as an extension of abortion politics. Or so it seemed. But a funny thing has happened on the way to the counterrevolution: The National Institutes for Health, having just been granted its freedom, is threatening a partial return to Bush-era bondage.