Many scientists are concerned about the lack of awareness in the general public about science, its discoveries, and its impact on human life. Many institutes, universities, scientific societies, and even scientists try their best to run various public outreach programs that can help in spreading awareness about science, its achievements, and its capabilities among the general population (who are not very well acquainted with science). All people associated with science want to do a better job of communicating science to the general public, but unfortunately, it is not an easy thing to do.
This problem of communication between scientists and the general public is very old, I think it started when scientific knowledge was labeled as complicated and got limited to a few intellectuals. Scientists in the old days were considered rebels as they questioned most of the established beliefs and challenged many statements from holy books. This created an obvious rift between scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge which resulted in this apparent disconnect. Today many people believe that most scientists are atheists and they don't believe in God or religion. Science or scientist don't force their opinion or theories on the general population, everything is open for debate and discussion in science. Asking a question is a basic requirement for the progress of science and knowledge, but this attitude is not welcomed in many other sections of life. This difference in attitude widened the gap between science and other fields, people are trying by various means to bridge this gap but there are no easy solutions available for this. There are several other reasons for this disconnect between scientists and the general public. Some scientists put partial blame on the lay public because they think that many people have very little factual knowledge of science, whereas some scientists believe that blaming the public is not very useful and scientists should think that the problem is with us that's why we cannot communicate with them properly.
The problem is how to engage the nonscientific audience. Science is not very entertaining and often people think its knowledge is not necessary for their survival. But this is not true, today's life is all about science, since we get up in the morning till we sleep at night whatever we use or experience science plays some role in it. From our toothpaste to our sleeping bed, everything has some science involved in it. We are surrounded by scientific wonders and don't even realize it. A major problem in engaging and informing the public through education or various other activities is that people don't always pay attention and if they listen they often don't remember the things that scientists want them to remember. Science has helped us to solve many mysteries of life, there was no other way to understand them without scientific methods. I don't think people have given science its due. Divided public opinion about climate change, biased views about females and certain sections of society, racism, many religious superstitions, blind faith, sectarianism, etc. are some examples of lack of proper scientific knowledge and understanding.
Science has helped humans to achieve many impossible things, it has created a unique world around us. Our life is totally dependent on many inventions discovered by brilliant scientists. We don't realize it because they have become part of our routine day-to-day life. There is no field which is not benefited because of science and its achievements. I think if we want to name one reason for all the progress, comfort and many positive changes in human life credit goes to science. At the same time, many scientific discoveries are also responsible for some problems in the modern world, but the entire blame for this cannot be placed on science but is mainly the result of human greed and misuse of technology for selfish purposes. The positive and negative effects of science are clearly visible and critics of science only try to highlight negative aspects of science. It's the need of today to clear many misconceptions about science and spread awareness among common people about the need for basic scientific knowledge and aptitude. Every person from any background can benefit from this, it's necessary for their and society's overall health and progress. It's the responsibility of both the scientific community and the general public to develop a scientific attitude that is logical and rational thinking.
Thanks for reading and please share your views.
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing at vvt1974@gmail.com)
This problem of communication between scientists and the general public is very old, I think it started when scientific knowledge was labeled as complicated and got limited to a few intellectuals. Scientists in the old days were considered rebels as they questioned most of the established beliefs and challenged many statements from holy books. This created an obvious rift between scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge which resulted in this apparent disconnect. Today many people believe that most scientists are atheists and they don't believe in God or religion. Science or scientist don't force their opinion or theories on the general population, everything is open for debate and discussion in science. Asking a question is a basic requirement for the progress of science and knowledge, but this attitude is not welcomed in many other sections of life. This difference in attitude widened the gap between science and other fields, people are trying by various means to bridge this gap but there are no easy solutions available for this. There are several other reasons for this disconnect between scientists and the general public. Some scientists put partial blame on the lay public because they think that many people have very little factual knowledge of science, whereas some scientists believe that blaming the public is not very useful and scientists should think that the problem is with us that's why we cannot communicate with them properly.
The problem is how to engage the nonscientific audience. Science is not very entertaining and often people think its knowledge is not necessary for their survival. But this is not true, today's life is all about science, since we get up in the morning till we sleep at night whatever we use or experience science plays some role in it. From our toothpaste to our sleeping bed, everything has some science involved in it. We are surrounded by scientific wonders and don't even realize it. A major problem in engaging and informing the public through education or various other activities is that people don't always pay attention and if they listen they often don't remember the things that scientists want them to remember. Science has helped us to solve many mysteries of life, there was no other way to understand them without scientific methods. I don't think people have given science its due. Divided public opinion about climate change, biased views about females and certain sections of society, racism, many religious superstitions, blind faith, sectarianism, etc. are some examples of lack of proper scientific knowledge and understanding.
Science has helped humans to achieve many impossible things, it has created a unique world around us. Our life is totally dependent on many inventions discovered by brilliant scientists. We don't realize it because they have become part of our routine day-to-day life. There is no field which is not benefited because of science and its achievements. I think if we want to name one reason for all the progress, comfort and many positive changes in human life credit goes to science. At the same time, many scientific discoveries are also responsible for some problems in the modern world, but the entire blame for this cannot be placed on science but is mainly the result of human greed and misuse of technology for selfish purposes. The positive and negative effects of science are clearly visible and critics of science only try to highlight negative aspects of science. It's the need of today to clear many misconceptions about science and spread awareness among common people about the need for basic scientific knowledge and aptitude. Every person from any background can benefit from this, it's necessary for their and society's overall health and progress. It's the responsibility of both the scientific community and the general public to develop a scientific attitude that is logical and rational thinking.
Thanks for reading and please share your views.
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing at vvt1974@gmail.com)
I don't have any doubt about the contribution of science in the development of present world. But I wonder in present world, even after having developed society/civilization, human being kill other human being (for several selfish reasons)! How come the human species did not kill each other and became extinct when there was no civilization (or early state of civilization)!!? There was no real science understanding at that time (at least not formally). So although science is the most important today, there is something else beyond it (lets call it X-factor) which has allowed human race to survive up to the stage where science can make its identity. And I sincerely thank that factor.
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