It isn't just the public Joes that pose a problem. Governments too tend to
dump basic research when funding gets tight, failing to realise that this is
the resource on which all our scientific advances are based. The past few
decades have seen drastic cuts in research funding around the globe, with
only the most obvious applied projects being funded.
Science education tends to be very much targetted on details. I do not
recall any texts that connected basic science to applied results. I used to
teach courses in which I tried to develop a general understanding of science
rather than put forth a collection of facts, and I always began which an
exercise where first I asked my students to name the great scientists in
history, and then identify the ways in which science affected their lives. I
then asked them to connect the two, and they could come up with very few
links. Aside from Einstein and nuclear energy, virtually none.
I like to think that by the end of the course they had a better
understanding of how science had changed their lives, but many of these
changes are not of obvious benefit. For example, the work of Copernicus,
Gallileo, Lyell, Darwin and others have profoundly affected our lives by
changing the role of religion and traditional beliefs about the centrality
of humans in the universe, but that is hardly what we think about when we
discuss applied science!
Bill Silvert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason L Kindall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:41 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Palin laughs at fruit fly research
The political implications alone are troubling. The larger issue in my
mind is that this is a real reflection of the general lack of
understanding by the general public about what scientific research is and
isn't. Viewed alone, it might be pretty hard to justify research on fruit
flies to the average Joe (plumber or six-pack). Connect it with autism or
human health and then it becomes more palatable to the public. However, it
doesn't get there in the popular media, does it?
We're up against a real wall here, folks. As our economy gets more
turbulent there will be more uninformed remarks about research dollars
being spent on projects that the public has a hard time connecting with.
So where do we fight the good fight of science education? In schools? In
colleges? At home? I interact with *great* teachers that don't understand
scientific inquiry. The education system for our nations teachers doesn't
include much in the way of what science is for anyone but actual science
teachers in training (and that is sparse at best). We should do what we
can to diversify science courses in core curriculum across all majors.
