TOS Education and Public Outreach Guide

The Oceanography Society has published a very useful guide to public outreach written specifically for scientists.  It agrees in principle with most of my own findings and might be a very valuable resource.

You can check out their site at http://www.tos.org and the guide is found here:  http://www.tos.org/epo_guide/index.html.

TOS Education and Public Outreach Guide

The Oceanography Society has published a very useful guide to public outreach written specifically for scientists.  It agrees in principle with most of my own findings and might be a very valuable resource.  Check out their site and their guide.

Brain Physiology of Love and Sex

Elizabeth Cohen posted this story on CNN about what cognitive scientists are learning about love.We exchanged a few emails on the subject so I figured I'd take one of them and post this blog entry.

Cohen wrote, “In a group of experiments, Dr. Lucy Brown, a professor in the department of neurology and neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and her colleagues did MRI brain scans on college students who were in the throes of new love.  While being scanned, the students looked at a photo of their beloved. The scientists found that the caudate area of the brain -- which is involved in cravings -- became very active. Another area that lit up: the ventral tegmental, which produces dopamine, a powerful neurotransmitter that affects pleasure and motivation."

Some interesting websites on Science and Society

Report from the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology.  An excellent assessment of the situation, analysis of root causes and recommendations for the future.  Published in 2000.

An interesting site by Bonnie Bucqueroux, who blogs about current threats and how we can respond at the personal and policy levels.  Great use of video and YouTube.

 There are dozens of Yahoo! Groups organized around energy issues.   Is it better to start a new group or join some other ones?  Or perhaps both?

Warning or Alarm

 NASA GISS Surface Temperature Analysis

The debate over Global Warming is a perfect example of how the integrity of scientific evidence and the credibility of science itself has been compromised in a highly divisive and partisan debate over policy.  The most visible proponents of each side present themselves as experts, present their own facts and ignore or undermine the facts of their adversaries.  Common ground based on accepted scientific evidence and practices disappears along with deliberative, public dialog.  Positions harden.  Real uncertainty and risk remain but disappear from view.  Subtleties are lost.  The public struggles to follow the debate and is mystified, confused.

Advocates on each side focus on short term benefits and political results.  Longer term education -- and a deeper public understanding of the issues -- is compromised.  When the public hears experts disagree they loose confidence in both sides.  Science and technology as a whole are diminished.

Debate of the the Nuclear Industry in the 1970's and 80's was another perfect case with similar consequences for science and technology.  The history of CFC damage to the ozone layer is another more recent example.  It is particularly tragic because now that we know that the alarm was real, that the intervention worked and that it was commercially very successful, the issue has passed from public view and science has missed the opportunity to regain lost ground.

Along the same lines many lessons have been learned from the disastrous limits to growth debate.  Yet in part because of the evidence collected in the process there is tremendous support for environmental protection, conservation and smaller family sizes throughout the industrialized world.  But the role played by scientists (not activists) in this global social movements and their contribution to what is now called sustainable development is still not universally acknowledged.

Lots of work has been done under the heading of Science, Technology and Society (STS) and the Public Understanding of Science as well.  One example of a comprehensive study is The House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. Their |third report contains tremendous analysis of the tension between science, technology and society as well as what we can do about it.  (John Durant of the MIT Museum was somehow involved although I am unclear on his official role).

Warning or Alarm

The debate over global warming is a perfect example of how the integrity of scientific evidence and the credibility of science itself has been compromised in a highly divisive and partisan debate over policy.  The most visible proponents of each side present themselves as experts, present their own facts and ignore or undermine the facts of their adversaries.  Common ground based on accepted scientific evidence and practices disappears along with deliberative, public dialog.  Positions harden.  Real uncertainty and risk remain but disappear from view.  Subtleties are lost.  The public struggles to follow the debate and is mystified, confused.

Some interesting websites on Science and Society

Report from the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology is an excellent assessment of the situation, analysis of root causes and recommendations for the future.  Published in 2000.

Strategies for Survival is aninteresting site by Bonnie Bucqueroux, who blogs about current threats and how we can respond at the personal and policy levels.  Great use of video and YouTube.There are dozens of Yahoo! Groups organized around energy issues.

Is it better to start a new group or join some other ones?  Or perhaps both?

The Challenge of Science and Civic Engagement

Many of the most complex and serious issues facing society today have significant technical and scientific dimensions: how to manage climate change, public health, loss of biodiversity, and dwindling natural resources, to name a few. These are not just technical or scientific issues, however.  These are fundamentally social, political and economic problems with substantial ethical, moral and cultural dimensions.  Answers to these challenges require judgment, values and priorities in addition to empirical observation, experimental evidence, quantitative models and methods.