Friday, November 25, 2011

Societies Perception of Science

   It seems as though the fundamental truths that sciences offer may not be acceptable to the general public due to the inherent never-ending change that is the progress of scientific theory.
  It then comes as no surprise to many that this is equated with never actually knowing anything, as the scientific version of  this 'truth', is constantly undergoing some sort of refinement. To most of the scientific community this is understood as the simple mechanism in which our understanding improves over time.
This does not appear to be the case for the general public.
Though I personally have not researched this topic thoroughly, It appears that there are a few  core reasons that at least illuminate some of the things science and scientist need to combat in order to remain trustworthy to the general public.
 Some of these reasons center around the idea of some absolute answer or 'absolute truth', to borrow the words of Dr. R. James. Absolute truth relates to the idea that we can make broad distinctions about anything, which apply to language and the perception of ourselves in general. This plays a specific and distinct role when we have first hand knowledge of a subject as we do when it comes to ourselves and our own thoughts and actions. There are many mechanisms that reduce the confidence in absolute truth within societies.  In the context of science it is specifically important because those who give no validity to any absolute truths, inherently will give little or no value to theoretically postulated understandings of the world around them.
  The Scientific community must also acknowledge the radical change many simple marketing campaigns have had on the public opinion of brands over the last few centuries. It illuminates how the simplicity of a message is really key to grabbing attention and recognition for branding or popularity. This also contradicts the very nature of science as it allows for a never-ending quest for deeper understanding. One can never expect all of a subject to be wrapped in a simplistic idea, but it seems the inherent human necessity to understand simple patterns only allows us so much detail each time we step toward a new subject.
   We must also acknowledge the bias created through the acceptance of false positives and acceptance of erroneous positives.  Shared below is a link that illustrates how prevalent this is in academia. While we have to understnad the pressures that exist, the entire idea of science becomes open to criticism in cases like these where journals and scientist only look at information that reinforces their interest. It's not that there are not reasons to ever rework experiments or look at data through some sort of filter, instead it is equally, or possibly even more important to publish and explain data that contradicts our assumptions. There is much to be learned from even this process! Of course journals also have publishing pressures, but there must be a way to better navigate and maintain journal integrity as it also affects the time spent of thousands of researches poorly represented data as a guide to understanding the next steps in research.