Really Nice Article About the Relationship of Science and Democracy

Of the many gripes I have with the Bush Administration perhaps none irks me so personally as their general disregard for science. One of the major cornerstones of our society is science. It is responsible for understanding how the world works and for the development of ways in which to improve it as well. The Bush Administration seemed content to thwart important scientific advances such as stem cell research and climate change research with their narrow-minded and partisan views on the issues. (These are just two issues that come immediately to mind...I'm sure the list is more extensive. I would not be surprised if funding for science was not adversely effected by the 8 years of the administration.) Wasn't Bush's first veto like however many years into office a veto of a stem-cell funding bill? One that would open up federal funding into additional lines of embryonic stems cell that could have the potential to treat a variety of maladies.

Well anyway, a very nice essay appeared in the NYT earlier this week. (Pointed out by Dr. Kiki on her Twitter feed today). It can be found here.

My favorite excerpt of the essay sums up succinctly a view of science which I whole-heartedly agree with:

Science is not a monument of received Truth but something that people do to look for truth.

That endeavor, which has transformed the world in the last few centuries, does indeed teach values. Those values, among others, are honesty, doubt, respect for evidence, openness, accountability and tolerance and indeed hunger for opposing points of view. These are the unabashedly pragmatic working principles that guide the buzzing, testing, poking, probing, argumentative, gossiping, gadgety, joking, dreaming and tendentious cloud of activity — the writer and biologist Lewis Thomas once likened it to an anthill — that is slowly and thoroughly penetrating every nook and cranny of the world.

Go science!! I hope Obama follows through with his pledge to bring back science to its rightful place. I have no doubt that he will.