Events | 2010.03.11
Science must be a major election issue | Adam Rutherford
The data is unequivocal: investing in scientific research during times of recession results in economic growth
On Tuesday night, the science representatives of the three main parties jovially debated in front of a heaving Westminster audience, all pushing the agenda that science is now a central election issue.
Quite right too. All evidence suggests that increased expenditure in basic research results in economic growth. Conservative shadow science minister Adam Afriyie immediately set up their stall the wrong way round, by declaring that mending the economy came before investing in science. Science minister Lord Drayson countered, as he always does, by engaging well with critics, saying the right thing, but appearing hamstrung by his own party.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Royal Society, under Lord Martin Rees \'s excellent leadership, has the very clearest view on what needs to be done. Published on Monday, their report entitled The Scientific Century: Securing Our Future Prosperity is a masterful document, packed with robust data, and well written to boot. In it, they recommend a long-term strategy of ring-fenced investment, and increased funding towards people rather than projects. It plays down the sometimes false dichotomy of "basic" as opposed to "applied" research, but reasonably promotes revenue generating academic-industry collaboration.
This debate doesn\'t just centre on research. It also comes in a school education, and the Royal Society\'s report hammers home the primary importance of specialist science teachers. Afriyie cited shadow children\'s secretary Michael Gove\'s predictable declaration last week that the curriculum should return to the old school and comprise "traditional" lessons. Bizarrely, they are claiming to battle endemic dumbing down not by employing the knowledge of education experts, but by asking celebrities. To shape the science curriculum, Gove volunteered public scientists and figures including lords Rees and Winston, the publicity-courting Baroness Greenfield and Carol Vorderman. While no doubt these have all achieved excellence in particular fields, none is a school-level educational professional.
The New Labour project was in the thrall of expert advice, sometimes taking it, and in the case of the sacking of drugs advisor David Nutt , conspicuously ignoring it. The Conservatives appear to be following suit. Alongside their celebrity-endorsed curriculum, yesterday they issued a report by vacuum cleaner manufacturer James Dyson. It\'s not a bad document, glossy and vaguely in line with that of the Royal Society. But alongside Afriyie\'s statements in the debate, it\'s hard to see past this as being anything other than vacuous lip service, if you\'ll forgive the inevitable pun. Dyson, for the record, manufactures his vacuums, not in the UK, but in Malaysia.
The Lib Dems\' Evan Harris is the only MP who genuinely appears to understand both the scientific process and the import of investing in that process to ensure our future. His position that the science budget can only be cut after we are out of recession is spot on. A coalition brought on by a hung parliament could result in the installation of this man as a science minister who will drive a genuinely progressive policy for the benefit of everyone. In a hung parliament, though, his position will be weakened in enacting those policies.
Science must be a major election issue. The data is unequivocal: investing in basic research during times of recession results in economic growth. That investment comes primarily at university level, and in hard times, by ring-fencing research council budgets. The current government has made some key progress on sorting out the science curriculum (such as on the teaching of evolution), but before 2009, the UK failed to meet its targets on attracting more secondary teachers into science and maths every year for a decade.
With little to call between the main parties on many issues, promises on how to bust the economic depression will be critical. Whichever party most heartily adopts the Royal Society\'s recommendations will secure the UK\'s future economically and, more importantly, create the science-literate society and research-driven economy we should all aim for. As this august organisation so pithily says: "Unless we get smarter, we\'ll get poorer."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]1/science-major-election-issue
Instagram is adding automatic in-app text translation - The Verge views: 1523
Here’s a ‘Brand-New’ Massive Multilingual Dataset for Machine Translation views: 1514