Scientists warned of 'gulf that threatens progress'

A gulf in understanding between scientists and the public
threatens to undermine society's trust in medical and
technological innovation, a leading figure in British science
will warn today.

Sir Howard Newby, the incoming president of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, will say in his
inaugural address to the Festival of Science in Leicester that
the sheer pace of technological change has created a 
heightened sense of public uncertainty over subjects ranging 
from waste disposal to food additives.

Sir Howard said. "Contemporary knowledge is not only 
unprecedentedly voluminous but also astonishingly fragmented 
and the more we know collectively the less capable an individual
seems to be of interpreting matters outside his or her expertise.

"As a consequence, while many of the difficult and controversial
decisions we must make in modern society are focused around
scientific questions, we find ourselves on virtually every topic of
importance dependent on advice from small, elite sub-groups of
experts," he said.

"The scientific community is beginning to engage more with society 
at large, albeit hesitantly and tentatively, as it comes to 
recognise the potential consequences of failing to do so. Equally,
the public understanding of what science can, but more importantly
cannot deliver has a long way to go ... The scientific community 
does not possess a collective magic wand."

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
09 September 2002 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=331716


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"Perceptions" note:

It's taken a long time for one of them to think it and longer to
say it - our modern so-called "scientists" are mostly believers in
the status-quo, over-specialised, authoritarian, narrow-minded nerds

see http://www.perceptions.couk.com/chiefly.html

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              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/nerds.txt