No-Nonsense Guide to Science
5/5
()
About this ebook
Science is still the great intellectual adventure, but now it is also seen as an instrument of profit, power, and privilege. Wrongly used, it might yet make the 21st century our last.To make sense of all this, we need to let go of old ideas and assumptions.
In the No-Nonsense Guide to Science, Jerome Ravetz introduces the “post-normal” way of thinking about science. We are to transcend the old simplistic ideas of perfect certainty and objectivity in science–they have failed to protect people and the environment when science has gone wrong and they have enabled flat, dogmatic teaching in our schools. We must now accept that value-loading, uncertainty, and ignorance are very real parts of science, and that citizens must participate in the policies that shape its evolution.
The book also includes a refreshing new look at the history of science, and concludes with a series of questions that anyone can use to start their own exploration of the present and future of science.
Read more from Jerome Ravetz
The No-Nonsense Guide to Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to No-Nonsense Guide to Science
Titles in the series (29)
No-Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoNonsense ISIS and Syria: The new global war on terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Conflict and Peace Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Legalizing Drugs: The key to ending the war Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to International Migration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Global Terrorism, 2nd edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Green Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No-Nonsense Guide to Democracy, 2nd edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Global Surveillance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNoNonsense Feminism: Why the World Still Needs the F-word Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Global Media, 2nd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Science Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No-Nonsense Guide to Tourism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Religion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to the Arms Trade, 2nd edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to World Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to World Food, 2nd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity, 2nd edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to World Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide To World Poverty, 2nd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to World History, 3rd edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRenewable Energy: Cleaner, fairer ways to power the planet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlobalization: Buying and selling the world Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRethinking Education: Whose Knowledge Is It Anyway? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5International Development: Illusions and Realities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Money Crisis: How Bankers Grabbed Our Money—and How We Can Get It Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
The Stockholm Paradigm: Climate Change and Emerging Disease Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to Global Media, 2nd Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Killer's Henchman: Capitalism and the Covid-19 Disaster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehind the Mask: Vernacular Culture in the Time of COVID Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo-Nonsense Guide to World Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContested Illnesses: Citizens, Science, and Health Social Movements Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTesla Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod's Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPathological Realities: Essays on Disease, Experiments, and History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRichard Rorty: The Making of an American Philosopher Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Super Continent: The Logic of Eurasian Integration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlong the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Knowledge Flows in a Global Age: A Transnational Approach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll Societies Die: How to Keep Hope Alive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEndurance: Australian Stories of Drought Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsResidues: Thinking Through Chemical Environments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Tom Burgis's Kleptopia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Rights at Risk: Global Governance, American Power, and the Future of Dignity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDescribing the Hand of God: Divine Agency and Augustinian Obstacles to the Dialogue between Theology and Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Thousand Things: Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Story... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScreening Economies: Money Matters and the Ethics of Representation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unexpected Patient: True Kiwi stories of life, death and unforgettable clinical cases Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeeding The Few Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPost-Growth Geographies: Spatial Relations of Diverse and Alternative Economies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Origin of Disease: The War Within Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrust, Democracy, and Multicultural Challenges Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZygmunt Bauman: Selected Summaries: UNIVERSITY SUMMARIES Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Role of External Support in Nonviolent Campaigns: Poisoned Chalice or Holy Grail? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science & Mathematics For You
The Big Book of Hacks: 264 Amazing DIY Tech Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy of Gay Sex: Fully revised and expanded third edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way of the Shaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No-Drama Discipline: the bestselling parenting guide to nurturing your child's developing mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Gov't Told Me: And the Better Future Coming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for No-Nonsense Guide to Science
4 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
No-Nonsense Guide to Science - Jerome Ravetz
The
NO-NONSENSE GUIDE
to
SCIENCE
‘Publishers have created lists of short books that discuss the questions that your average [electoral] candidate will only ever touch if armed with a slogan and a soundbite. Together [such books] hint at a resurgence of the grand educational tradition... Closest to the hot headline issues are The No-Nonsense Guides. These target those topics that a large army of voters care about, but that politicos evade. Arguments, figures and documents combine to prove that good journalism is far too important to be left to (most) journalists.’
Boyd Tonkin,
The Independent,
London
About the author
Jerome Ravetz is author of the classic study Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems (1971, 1996). Formerly Reader in History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds, he also helped found the Council for Science and Society and is a pioneer in the area of science and safety. He is now an independent scholar and self-employed consultant working mainly on the problems of management of uncertainty in risks and environmental issues. His selected essays were published as The Merger of Knowledge with Power (1991) and with Silvio Funtowicz he co-authored Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy (1990). He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my longstanding colleagues Silvio Funtowicz and Zia Sardar.
Other titles in the series
The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization
The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade
The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change
The No-Nonsense Guide to World History
The No-Nonsense Guide to Conflict and Peace
The No-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights
The No-Nonsense Guide to Animal Rights
The
NO-NONSENSE GUIDE
to
SCIENCE
Jerome Ravetz
The No-Nonsense Guide to Science
Published in Canada by
New Internationalist™ Publications Ltd
2446 Bank Street, Suite 653
Ottawa, Ontario
K1V 1A8
www.newint.org
and
Between the Lines
401 Richmond Street West, Studio 277
Toronto, ON
M5V 3A8
www.btlbooks.com
First published in the UK by
New Internationalist™ Publications Ltd
55 Rectory Road
Oxford OX4 lBW
New Internationalist is a registered trade mark.
© Jerome Ravetz/New Internationalist 2005
This edition not to be sold outside Canada.
Cover image: Andrew Brookes/Corbis
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Between the Lines, or (for photocopying in Canada only) Access Copyright, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5.
Series editor: Troth Wells
Design by New Internationalist Publications Ltd
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada.
ISBN 978-1-771130-63-9 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-771130-91-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-1-896357-98-0 (print)
Between the Lines gratefully acknowledges assistance for its publishing activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and through the Ontario Book Initiative, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.
Foreword
MY PERCEPTION OF science at school was similar to that of most other students. Theories were considered to be unchanging and offer exact predictions. I had to learn by rote many sets of facts. Like the students that Edmondson and Novak interviewed much later in their 1993 study of American colleges*, I certainly had a ‘positivist’ approach to science: first there’s an idea, then a theory and then it becomes truth. Experiments were exercises that had a right answer which I failed to deliver most of the time.
Two things changed this. First, the experience of working in the laboratory of Dorothy Hodgkin on the structure of insulin in the 1960s, a project which she had started 30 years before. This was a real culture change. There were lots of debates about what we should do and what would work; nothing seemed obvious or certain.
But second, and more important, I became involved while working with Dorothy in local politics. As Chairman of the Planning Committee of Oxford City Council, I was required to make decisions when there were very few data and often what were available were uncertain and contradictory. I did not go into politics, but instead retired to the safe world of academic science. There I discovered that the art of ‘successful science’ was to identify problems that could be solved, and to ignore the others.
But that approach was soon challenged. My work took me to the world of medicines, to drug discovery. I suggested ways that putative drug targets might be inhibited. This was very exciting but it was only the start of drug development. Many drug candidates were abandoned because they showed signs of toxicity or even because they resembled other toxic molecules. In the face of an increasingly litigious society, drug candidates were withdrawn in clinical trials with the slightest danger signs. However, the uncertainties remained and many safe drugs proved to be dangerous in the long term.
A similar scene of uncertainty presented itself when I became involved in agricultural research policy in the early 1990s. Ministers assured us that their policy with respect to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was based on ‘sound science’. I worried that we knew very little about the prion or hypothetical infectious particle, that we could not measure it in most body fluids and that we knew nothing very much about how it led to the spongiform encephalopathies.
More recently my experience as Chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has reminded me that ignorance characterizes most environmental policy. What does happen to molecules from sprays, paints, pesticides, fire protectants and thousands of other useful chemicals when they are released from products into the environment? What will be the effect of new supersonic aircraft on climate change? What does happen to other trophic levels of the food chain and to the wider ecosystem when we fish out one species?
This book begins to address such questions. It does so in a direct and often provocative way. It challenges our hopes for economic progress from genomics, robotics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and nano-technology in the coming years. It suggests that science may very often be characterized by malevolence and muddle. But it also recognizes that science can and will contribute to our health and wealth in the coming years. This is certainly essential reading for all aspiring scientists – and for some older ones too!
Professor Sir Tom Blundell FRS,
Department of Biochemistry,
University of Cambridge, England.
* Edmondson, K and Novak, J (1993) Cornell University study of American Colleges J Res SciTeaching. 30, 547-559.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Tom Blundell
Introduction
1 Science now
2 How science changed reality
3 Second thoughts from history
4 Little Science, Big Science, Mega Science
5 Scientific objectivity
6 Uncertainty
7 Science and democracy
8 People’s science
9 Science, its future and you
Contacts
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
FOR A LONG time science had been seen as the way to the real salvation of humanity; now it is also recognized as a possible instrument of our destruction. Making sense of this contradiction is the most important challenge for thinking people in our time. For this we will need to get beyond our inherited assumptions about science, its special sort of knowledge, and its interactions with society.
If we ask, ‘what is science?’ we discover a paradox. For ‘science’ is assumed to be objective knowledge, less dependent on personal opinion than any other sort of knowing. But the common answers to the question about science are enormously various, and they depend on the personal situation of the person involved.
For students, science is a huge pile of facts and techniques, requiring uncritical assimilation and mastery. For the general public, science offers the promise of curing disease. For the audiences of the media, science is a collection of intriguing or amusing ideas and gadgets. In earlier times, science could be a means of liberation from religious dogma or popular superstition.
For some, it now has negative aspects. It can be a means of gaining high profits or increasing the powers of the state. Animal experimentation can be condemned as insensitive or cruel. Tampering with life and reproduction violates our deepest sense of identity and sanctity.
Various science-based technologies are criticized as dangerous – nuclear energy or GM crops, for example – or as instruments of oppression, in the case of bio-prospecting or bio-piracy. And our total science-based industrial civilization shows strong signs of fouling its nest in the biosphere, with catastrophic consequences that might already be too late to avert.
Any reader will have their own reactions to the elements of this list of opinions. None of these partial views of science is simply right or wrong. If we are to bring science successfully into the next phase of its history, we will need to cope with this diversity, and to comprehend its meaning. This book is designed to help with the development of that understanding. It looks at science as it is now, and shows how we got here. It explains how science can be genuine objective knowledge, and at the same time be conditioned by uncertainty and values. It also shows how our knowledge is selected and shaped by processes that reflect those values and the commitments behind them. And it highlights ignorance, which paradoxially is a crucial element in our understanding of the role of science.
In general, it promotes a ‘post-normal’ approach to science, which takes account of the uncertainty and value-loading that is now so pervasive. Further, it scrutinizes science from the point of view of modern democratic society. And finally it provides a list of questions for the reader, to help them create their own vision of science.
Recognizing the great achievements of science of the past and present, and the continuing great excitement and promise of the scientific endeavor, this No-Nonsense Guide aims to provide the elements of a new perspective so that the promise of science can continue to be fulfilled.
Jerome Ravetz
Oxford
Glossary of some of the terms used in this book
Genomics – the study and manipulation of life at the genetic level. A ‘gene’ is the unit of heredity; it is usually a component of the cell nucleus, acting with other genes and the intra-cellular environment.
Robotics – the technology that deals with the design, construction, operation and application of robots.
Artificial intelligence – the field of study that designs computers that can simulate or surpass human intelligent behavior.
Neuroscience – the science of the nervous system, especially the brain. We can now ‘see’ brain activity in real-time. The powers over consciousness that are being created raise the most far-reaching ethical issues.
Nanotechnology – technology that operates on a scale of a few nanometers, that is, a few billionths of a meter. It is potentially applicable to all fields of physical and life technology. But there are also very serious potential hazards of many sorts.
GRAINN – an acronym of all the above.
SHEE – the sciences of safety, health and environment, plus ethics.
M&M – malevolence and muddle, or the potential for misuse of science and for making mistakes within it.
Post-normal science – the sort of inquiry, usually issue-driven, where the facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, stakes are high and decisions are urgent. Its core ideas include an ‘extended peer community’ and the recognition of a plurality of legitimate perspectives on every issue.
The Precautionary Principle – advocates measures to anticipate, prevent or minimize adverse effects of scientific progress where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage. Lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing such measures.
1 Science now
Farewell to the old classifications, such as physics, chemistry, biology. Welcome to new ones, like GRAINN – short for genomics, robotics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and nanotechnology.
THE FIRST THING we must do is to put the old subject headings in their place. We still think in terms of physics, chemistry and biology as ways of understanding the world in the relevant aspects. But to understand where the action is right now, and where the problems of the future are unfolding, we should identify the main focal