Science Cheerleader

Phil Plait is The Bad Astronomer. His blog was named one of the top 25 of 2009 by TIME Magazine. He just joined Chris Mooney of Discover Magazine and formally endorsed the push to restore the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (thanks for the shout out, Phil!).

We encourage you to spread the word, ask people to sign the online OTA petition, join the Facebook discussion, and let’s help restore science to its rightful place in America.

Cheers!

Darlene

A colleague of mine, Chris Mooney (author of the Republican War on Science) recently published an article in Slate magazine: “Mission Accomplished. The “war on science” is over. Now what?”  I encourage you to read the full report. I found two points statistically fascinating (although they’re not related to his main points):

” While scientists may be resurgent in Washington, their world as a whole remains distant and bizarre to most Americans. Only 18 percent of us know a scientist personally, according to a 2005 survey (subscription required), and when asked in 2007 to name scientific “role models,” the results were dismal. Forty-four percent of Americans couldn’t come up with a name at all, and among those few who did, their top answers were either not scientists or not alive: Bill Gates, Al Gore, Albert Einstein.”

Do you personally know a scientist? (I do.)  And, let’s hear it: “Name a scientific role model.” (Mine include Story Musgrave, Marvin Minsky, Sally Ride….)  I just asked my 11-year-old daughter to name one and she said: “Ask me anything else. OK. Albert Einstein or Weird Al Yankovic.” She may not have inherited my love of science but she’s got a wicked sense of humor.

Cheers!

…and, together, we kick off the World Science Festival, this morning at Columbia University during a world-class Science Summit. Really, no joke! I’m included among the “125 leaders from science, business, government, media, and academia who will explore how today’s scientific discoveries will shape tomorrow.” (Columbia’s homepage news.)

(I did have to squirrel my way into this invitation. Finally, the old cheerleading uniform came in handy.)

“The 21st century will be shaped by science,” said Brian Greene, co-founder of the World Science Festival and professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University. “From the enormous challenges we face and opportunities we have available, science will be the critical driver. To make informed decisions, we need a general public that is not put off by science; rather, the public needs to be excited by science and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.”

The Festival seeks to transform the public perception of science by producing high caliber, entertaining and thought-provoking programs–for five days throughout New York City–that make science exciting, accessible, compelling, and inspirational. That’s Brian’s stated goal for the World Science Festival. A terrific goal and one we should all support.  

I hope I have an opportunity to share some thoughts with Brian and the 123 other leaders in the room. Engaging the public in science is critical and helps us make better decisions, particularly when it comes to science policy decisions. But we need authentic opportunities to inject our values and opinions into important discussions of science and science policy.  Let the public, us, displace the lobbyists. Scientists and policy makers can and should do more to trust the public’s desire and capacity to participate in real science activities and discussions. I’ll bring the empirical data with me just in case they don’t believe me.

Speaking of trust, if they haven’t already yanked the mic from my hands, I might suggest that we need more reasons to trust science in spite of the recent abuses by government and industry–and some scientists–covered in this book which I’ve read, and this new one I have yet to read, among many other publications. Depressing stuff, really.

Let’s move back to the happier, more optimistic approach, shall we? The World Science Festival!

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