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The Changing Climate for Science, Society and Public Policy

Delve into the evolution of science at the World Science Forum on November 11, 2005, exploring inter-disciplinary developments, emerging technologies, and funding challenges in the fast-paced scientific landscape.

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The Changing Climate for Science, Society and Public Policy

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  1. The Changing Climate for Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum November 11, 2005

  2. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The climate is determined by • Issues within science itself • Government regulations, priorities and funding • How the public relates to science

  3. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Within science….

  4. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Advances in science are coming at a very rapid pace, in part because • “Big science” has spread into new fields • Increasing inter-dependency of sciences • Advances in science are being fueled by advances in technology

  5. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The life sciences began doing “big science” projects

  6. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Human Genome Other Species Genomes

  7. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Genomes Proteomes

  8. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Trends of the last decade • Big science came to the life sciences • All scientific fields are now clearly inter-dependent • Diminishing amounts of disciplinary science

  9. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The Leading Edge is Multidisciplinary

  10. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Science’s top 125 include: • What is the universe made of? • What is the biological basis of consciousness? • How and where did life on earth arise? • What determines species diversity? • What genetic changes made us uniquely human? • How are memories stored and retrieved? • How does Earth’s interior work? • Are we alone in the Universe? • How hot will the greenhouse world be?

  11. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Advances in science are coming at a fantastic and accelerating pace, in part because • Big science has spread into new fields • Increasing multi-disciplinarity of science • Advances in science are being fueled by advances in technology

  12. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Technologies are enabling • New kinds of science • New questions • New understanding

  13. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Functional MRI of a “normal” subject Anterior Right Ventral R L Broca’s area posterior Left Parietal Cortex L SMA R Broca’s area Dorsal L. Chang, M.D., T. Ernst, Ph.D., O. Speck, Ph.D. Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Generating words (left brain dominant) Chang, et al.

  14. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The context is set by • Issues within science itself • Government regulations, priorities and funding

  15. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Post 9/11 Security Issues • Ease of travel • Travel to foreign meetings • Visas for foreign students and colleagues

  16. Change in Applications, Admissions, and Enrollments for International Graduate Students 2003-04 Total Engineering Life Sciences Physical Sciences Applications* -28% (-5%) -36% (-7%) -24% (-1%) -26% (-3%) Admissions -18% -24% -19% -17% Enrollments -6% -8% -10% +6% *2004-2005 data in parentheses http://www7.nationalacademies.org/internationalstudents/ The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Recent Changes in International Student Interest in US S&E Graduate Training

  17. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Post 9/11 Security Issues • Ease of travel • New research priorities

  18. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 New research priorities • Bioterrorism • Transportation security • Cybersecurity • Safety of the food supply These are affecting both funding and research community behavior

  19. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Overall, research funding has become a lower US national priority….

  20. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005

  21. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 …the committee is deeply concerned that the scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength….

  22. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/internationalstudents/ The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Measures of International Standing Authorship Trends

  23. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Federal policies can shift the lead in particular scientific domains….

  24. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Origin of Embryonic Stem Cell Papers Source: Levine, A., Politics and the Life Sciences, Sept. 14, 2005.

  25. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Recommendations • Increase talent pool by improving k-12 science and math education • Strengthen US commitment to long-term basic research…to maintain the flow of new ideas that fuel the economy, etc.

  26. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The climate is determined by • Issues within science itself • Government regulations, priorities and funding • How the public relates to science

  27. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 People generally still respect science and technology….

  28. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 US public’s view of scientific research National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators - 2002

  29. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 People still respect S&T…. ….but not everywhere in the same way or degree

  30. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 In Europe, the overall view of science has deteriorated: • In 2005, 52% of people felt benefits of science outweighed its risks vs. 61% in 1992 • That’s almost 20 percentage points below the US. Eurobarometer 2005

  31. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The American situation is not as good as it might appear….

  32. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 People have little understanding of what is and is not science • 60% of Americans believe in extrasensory perception • 41% think astrology is somewhat scientific • 47% still do not answer “true” to the statement: “Human beings developed from earlier species of animals” Science and Engineering Indicators, 2004

  33. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 The science-society relationship is deteriorating • Much more tension in the relationship • A new dimension has been added to the public’s view of and behavior toward science and technology

  34. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Historically, science and technology have been evaluated primarily on the basis of their costs/risks and benefits

  35. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Now, values (and politics) are being overlaid onto “simple” risk/benefit calculations

  36. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 We have seen values issues in the past • Galileo, the earth and the sun • Whether scientists should work on nuclear weapons Values (and political) issues are now very present in our society

  37. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 One political (economic) example… • Is there global warming?

  38. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005

  39. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 “Human values” issues • Cloning and stem cells • Studying “personal” topics • Sex • Genetics of behavior • Teaching “intelligent design” in science classrooms

  40. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Intelligent design claims to believe in gradual change • But a supernatural being guided the process • Claims to be a scientific alternative to evolution

  41. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005

  42. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Not just an American issue: “You have to admit that evolution theory is not complete.”Dutch Education Minister, Maria Van der Hoeven, 2005

  43. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Overlay of values is having serious consequences for the whole science-society relationship • Society wants to influence science • Rather than just the reverse • Creating a growing divide between science and the rest of society

  44. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 Causes of the “Great Divide” • Encroachment on/of values • Misunderstandings about the word “theory” • “Theory” has different meaning to scientists and lay persons • Science’s assumption that scientific illiteracy is the major obstacle

  45. The Changing Climate For Science, Society and Public Policy World Science Forum – November 11, 2005 We cannot just “educate” our way out of it • The problem is not just lack of understanding • People do understand much of what we’re saying or want to do • They don’t like it • The conflict with their core values trumps their view of societal benefits

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