Scientists: get off your pedestal and get round the table


	Scientists: get off your pedestal and get round the table

tabsey

10-13-2008 8:41 AM

145 views

tags:

expectations, - we, always, have, more, for, others

tabsey says:

Part of an article that looks at pressures on scientists.

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<SPAN class="dropcap">S</SPAN>cientists face a problem. On the one hand they want to persuade society that the scientific approach is the best way to understand the world, to provide rational solutions to the world’s problems and to use technology to make our lives better. But on the other hand, practicing scientists realise that science is full of uncertainty, that there is much more about the natural world that we don’t understand than we do, and that there is a limit to the predictive power of science.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.lablit.com/article/425"><DIV>
To some extent society forces scientists into this difficult position. To win funding, to publish papers in high profile journals and to get prestigious jobs, scientists have to convince others of the certainty of their research and its utility to society. They have to sell their science as the best. </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.lablit.com/article/425">Academia perpetuates a hierarchical system. There is a common belief that if you need to know the answer to something you have to talk to the most distinguished professor in the most prestigious university in the land</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3BE117CC-8F05-4DB9-B7F9-647C6E463799/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>