Great Article: When did science become the enemy?

[UltimateNYC]

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/s...ce_070215.html

You, dear reader, are one in a thousand.

The fact that you?re confronting this column on a web site devoted to space science and astronomy makes you roughly as rare as technetium. Despite the fact that astronomy is one of the two most popular science subjects in American schools (the other is biology), it?s really not that popular.

The overwhelming majority of the citizenry has other interests, and looming large among them are the peccadilloes and personal intrigues of the rich and famous. Consider the contrast: in the past week the Space Telescope Science Institute released a startlingly detailed photo of a distant cluster of galaxies, a picture that gives even the non-expert a good idea of the structure of these, the largest entities in the universe. The photo of cluster Abell S0740?an image that would have bedazed every previous generation of humans?probably didn?t even make it to the front section of your local newspaper.

However, what did garner front-page ink last week, not to mention huge dollops of chatter on talk radio, was the unexpected death of Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star.

Movie director Frank Capra wasn?t disclosing a staggering new truth in noting that ?what interests people is people.? One dead-obvious reason is that those who are thoroughly unresponsive to their fellow humanoids don?t get a lot of representation in the next generation. We?re most interested in people, in the same way that click beetles are most interested in click beetles. That?s evolution.

But why the seemingly preternatural fascination with famous personalities, be they powerful figures (politicians, for example) or mere celebrities, as was Ms Smith?

That, too, seems to have a clear evolutionary benefit. Unlike most of the beasts of the forest, we?re quite good at learning things. Stories?made possible by speech?are efficient ways of conveying life lessons to the young without the trouble and danger of actually having to demonstrate. Hearing stories about successful people, as well as those who have fallen, could prompt us to imitate the behaviors of the former and avoid those of the latter. Heroes, in other words, have survival value.

The peculiar thing is that American heroes aren?t often very good at science. Indeed, in much popular culture, it?s only the villains who?re conversant with Maxwell or Einstein. The ?mad scientist? has become such a cultural icon that the Royal Society held a special lecture on the subject. Some of the mad men of science (and they are, overwhelmingly, men) are just evil characters intent on destroying the world, taking over the world, or simply rearranging the world according to their personal predilections. Dr. No and Dr. Evil come to mind, as do Lex Luthor, Dr. Octopus, the overly Teutonic Dr. Strangelove, and the Green Goblin.

How did scientists become the enemy? I mean, really: who would you rather have help you take a calculus final? or for that matter, cure the common cold or figure out the nature of dark energy: Spiderman or Green Goblin? Science is useful.

And if the scientists in popular media haven?t slipped entirely to the dark side, they?ve at least gone bonkers. They?ve become obsessed with some narrow field of research, and lost sight of the big picture. When a prehistoric monster is shambling through a major metropolis, wreaking havoc and destruction, there?s always some lab-coated PhD who?s interfering with the steely-eyed military types, screaming ?we have to save it for science!? And just to make sure that these howling academics won?t become your role model, they?re usually portrayed as short, ugly bald guys with social grace and sex appeal on a par with Ben the rodent.

This anti-science stuff seems to have arisen in the 19th century, when the pastoral lifestyle of the English countryside was being threatened by the steam engine. At the same time, Victor Frankenstein was endeavoring to replace sex and families by creating a barely functional human simulacrum in the lab (using not much more than Tesla coils and scrounged parts), and Dr. Faustus was out hawking his soul for some knowledge.

That?s all European. But when it comes to anti-science bias, Americans are hard to beat. Our frontier heritage surely plays a role. When facing off against brutal mountains, a harsh climate, aggressive animals, and an indigenous population that might not cotton to new arrivals, are you better off wielding Newton?s equations or a Bowie knife? American heroes are survivors, as television viewers know.

In addition, and since the Second World War, the public?s perception of science has been influenced by the destructive potential of some of its products. These range from the evil wrought by Nazi scientists to the development of scary atomic power. Today, the threats posed by thinking machines or genetic engineering are the workaday staples of mad, bad science. That?s just moving with the times, but the public?s reaction is the same: this stuff could be dangerous, and besides I don?t understand it. Ergo, I?ll bolster my self-esteem by putting you down because you do.

So it?s no surprise that a discipline like astronomy ? as popular as it is ? doesn?t really electrify most folks. The combined circulation of Astronomy and Sky & Telescope is roughly 200,000 (with readership about twice that). The circulation of People magazine is 3,700,000.

The membership of the Astronomical League, a national organization of amateur astronomers, is 16,000. The National Mah Jongg League has 275,000.

You are, very literally, one in a thousand. But there?s little reason to grouse. The cult of personality, while mesmerizing, isn?t going to guide Homo sapiens into a better future. You?re like the pioneer ants ? the small percentage of ants that dare to explore, and who are, ultimately, responsible for the colony?s long-term survival.

Anna Nicole Smith may get the column inches now, but the future is yours.

link to the picture: http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/...FAURA%29%0D%0A

[The Experiment]

Science is the enemy because the United States is in the middle of an anti-intellectual culture.

In this culture, we are to hate education and instead make broad, sweeping statements. Everything is now black and white. People hear only what they want to hear and see what they want to see. If they see something they don't like, they don't come up with rebuttals. Instead, they want it banned. We are to now spend our energy on giving a **** about celebrities and their gossip. Sometimes its interesting but most of the time, its not.

[UltimateNYC]

Originally Posted by The Experiment

Science is the enemy because the United States is in the middle of an anti-intellectual culture.

In this culture, we are to hate education and instead make broad, sweeping statements. Everything is now black and white. People hear only what they want to hear and see what they want to see. If they see something they don't like, they don't come up with rebuttals. Instead, they want it banned. We are to now spend our energy on giving a **** about celebrities and their gossip. Sometimes its interesting but most of the time, its not.

wow, you put it perfectly, especially the beginning "the United States is in the middle of an anti-intellectual culture."

[The Experiment]

Originally Posted by UltimateNYC

wow, you put it perfectly, especially the beginning "the United States is in the middle of an anti-intellectual culture."

Its the sad truth but one I've accepted for some time.

I work on my studies hard and it pays off. In my spare time, I lift, I read, I work in groups, and I have an awesome girlfriend. Most guys I know just waste their free time in front of the TV. TV isn't that bad, I mean The Shield is an awesome show, but I rarely watch it. My roommates right now probably sink 4-5 hours of TV a day, mostly watching ESPN.

They don't care about learning anything other than what they have to learn. I don't look down on them at all, don't get me wrong, but its easy to see that education is looked down upon in the United States. The assumption that we will be fine because we are Americans is a wrong assumption and I feel that we are going to find out the consequences of this in the next decade or two.

[Fidelis]

People feel threatened by "Ivory Tower elitists"--meaning people with educations, particularly in the liberal arts. I get the impression that some of the people in my family are taken aback by my shocking lack of ignorance.

Often times, education is linked with arrogance. If someone with a qualified and informed opinion tells an ignorant person that they are wrong, they are sometimes accused of being arrogant. It's happened to me before on this forum. I think it comes from the popular myth in America that everyone's opinion is equal. Everyone has the right to an opinion, but some opinions are obviously more informed and therefore more qualified than others.

[Ibanez]

Yes, maybe some day we will praise the astronomers for the godlike entities that are. Enabling us to see a vast complex universe that without their help we wouldn't be able to see, for this we pray.

I've encountered the anti-intellectual attitude when in high school, but after I left high school I never encountered it again. Mabye it's bad communication with others that brings out the anti-intellectual side.

I also understand when he is writing about when it comes to celebrities too. Why do some people care what celebrities do? I don't know, but I don't care.

The question to be asked is why don't people find Science interesting? Maybe it has to do with the lack of creative expression?

[UltimateNYC]

Originally Posted by Ibanez

The question to be asked is why don't people find Science interesting? Maybe it has to do with the lack of creative expression?

i think a reason could be that science is rarely glorified anymore. outside of the scientific community noone thinks its "cool" to be an experienced researcher, probably because the work being done in the name of science goes right over the heads of the average person.

celebrities and the rich are so glorified that they seem to be all that matters to the common person. you can be the dumbest person alive but as long as you have a pretty face and money youre a god. "is my car nice enough," "are my clothes expensive enough," and "are my boobs big enough?" are really the only questions people nowadays care about.

[The Experiment]

Back in the 1950s and 1960s there was the great space race between the US and USSR. Everyone was into science because helping science meant helping America. All kinds of new firms dedicating itself to science and engineering emerged to take advantage of this.

You don't see this today. I think the war in Vietnam was the thing that killed it, really. Instead of people plus government, they are now two separate entities. Events like the Reagan Revolution have only furthered this divide.

A lot of the patriotism today is cocked up. I'm patriotic but for reasons other than most people are. There was a time when the patriotism was justified but now, it just seems like patriotism is like the "Support Our Troops" ribbons: put a magnetic thing on your car that is easy to take off when you see fit.

[Ibanez]

Originally Posted by The Experiment

Back in the 1950s and 1960s there was the great space race between the US and USSR. Everyone was into science because helping science meant helping America. All kinds of new firms dedicating itself to science and engineering emerged to take advantage of this.

You don't see this today. I think the war in Vietnam was the thing that killed it, really. Instead of people plus government, they are now two separate entities. Events like the Reagan Revolution have only furthered this divide.

A lot of the patriotism today is cocked up. I'm patriotic but for reasons other than most people are. There was a time when the patriotism was justified but now, it just seems like patriotism is like the "Support Our Troops" ribbons: put a magnetic thing on your car that is easy to take off when you see fit.

I'm sure if you look at the numbers you will probably find the absolute value is increasing, but the relative value is low. I don't think you'll get any cold war induced science fever again.