Science needs better marketing. Scientists can change the world, but first they have to get more involved in business and politics. So said Larry Page, founding CEO of Google, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (source). He has a point.
The solutions to global climate change, loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, energy shortages, disease, and many other great challenges depend on advances in scientific understanding, and they depend on that understanding being applied. Science cannot determine the solutions alone, but it will be a vital part of finding those solutions. It behooves scientists to be involved, and it is vital that non-scientists welcome the contributions that scientists have to make.
The challenge that matters now is to make sure that science is taken seriously. Scientists need to convince people that we have developed honest procedures for understanding how the world works, that we can put confidence limits around most of our conclusions, and that our track record shows we have achieved reliable, if still incomplete, knowledge. Douglas J. Futuyma, January 2007 (source)
Toward that end scientific organizations are coming together to make 2009 a Year of Science.
Through scientific meetings and public lectures, news articles and editorial briefings, classrooms and laboratories — not to mention Web sites, podcasts, and programs at museums and science centers — AIBS and its members and partners will demonstrate both that science plays a vital role in the future of humanity and that science inspires the best qualities of the human spirit. Kent E. Holsinger, December 2006
The effort is just getting started, but momentum is rapidly growing. Expect to see and hear a lot from the Year of Science project in 2009 and beyond.
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