SOCIETY is losing its long-standing faith in science鈥檚 ability to deliver a better world. And the events of 11 September last year have deepened this mistrust by making the world appear a more uncertain place, despite the fact that we know more about the natural world now than ever before.
This was the warning delivered by Howard Newby, the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in a keynote speech to open the association鈥檚 annual meeting this week in Leicester. 鈥淚n the wake of September 11th, we鈥檝e come to question our faith in social progress and in open human enquiry,鈥� he says.
Newby fears that the current political climate is helping to fuel this uncertainty, which in turn is jeopardising one of the key principles of the Enlightenment 200 years ago, namely that the growth of knowledge results in social progress.
Advertisement
鈥淎n increasing proportion of the population seems to distrust rational enquiry to establish both the facts and the uncertainties,鈥� warns Newby. 鈥淩ather, they prefer their instincts, or even to celebrate anti-intellectualism.鈥�
This creates a danger that people will increasingly try to bring certainty to their lives by turning to the 鈥渕onsters鈥� of 鈥渁uthoritarian dogma鈥� and 鈥渇undamentalist urges鈥�, he says.
Part of the problem is the changing relationship between scientists and the public. Scientific discovery is now relentless, continually challenging society to accept the new and hitherto unimaginable. Yet paradoxically, the pace of change is what is driving the sense of uncertainty and making the world appear a riskier place, says Newby, a sociologist and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Southampton.
The onus is now on scientists to win back the trust they universally enjoyed as recently as 20 years ago. And to do so they have to be more honest about what science can鈥檛 deliver. 鈥淭he scientific community has retreated from an engagement with society, just associety at large has been excluded from the real world of scientific method.鈥�
Similarly, the public and politicians must accept that science seldom gives them the clear-cut answers they crave on issues such as whether genetically modified crops or vaccines are safe, or cloning is ethical. Indeed, some of the problems we face are so remote that even experts have trouble grasping them, Newby says.
鈥淭he public must become more accustomed to the acceptance of degrees of risk, which is a lot more messy [than certainty].鈥� 杏吧原创s can鈥檛 abolish human moral fallibility, he adds.
It is now up to scientists to vigorously reassert the value of open enquiry, and fight back against anti-science and anti-intellectual attitudes. By the same token, the public, which often stands in awe of the products of recent scientific progress, must understand that science is not magic, and that the scientific community does not possess a collective 鈥渕agic wand鈥�.