Science as an Adventure

Many of our fellow citizens have an image of science and of scientists we would find hard to recognize: They tend to think of science as something rigid, firm and soulless (and generally dull) created in an objective and often solitary manner by cool passionless persons. While they might be willing to see some nobility in ‘pure’ science, this reluctant generosity does usually not extend to its ‘dirty’ offshoot, technology. Absurd as all this picture looks to us, it is, I think, worth examining how these dangerous misconceptions arise and what might be done to improve the understanding of what we do.

These views are indeed dangerous in several respects. First there is the angry puzzlement that arises when no firm clear answer can be given to scientific queries that are of public interest (usually in the environmental or medical fields). When on some such issue different scientists hold differing views, journalists speak of “this extraordinary scientific controversy”. When I tell them that controversy is normal in science and is indeed the lifeblood of scientific advance, they find it hard to believe me. The public tend to think that at least some of the scientists involved in such a controversy must be either venal or incompetent or both. These views arise partly from the con- flict between the popular view that scientists are ‘objective and dispassionate’ and the normality of active arguments, yet people are unwilling to abandon their view. Moreover, the piece of science most people are familiar with is the Newtonian description of the solar system (Newton's clockwork, as I like to call it). The rigid predictability of this is taken as a model of what all science should be like. When this expectation is not fulfilled, there is disappointment.

A model, familiar to all, for many fields of science is weather forecasting, but this is not appreciated. The curse of rigidity is thought to apply to us and this view is reinforced by teaching mainly the examinable pieces of science where the right/wrong classification can readily be applied.