Science and Society

I wasn’t expecting to be so interested in a 40-year-old video, but the class where we watched the old city council meeting was one of my favorite classes so far. It’s always interesting to compare today’s technology to technology from decades ago, but this video was especially interesting because my view was the complete opposite of the general public’s.

While this conversation concerning recombinant DNA has probably reached its expiration date, the arguments that the scientists were having with the politicians aren’t unique. This isn’t the first time that scientists have come up with ideas that the public doesn’t understand, and it definitely won’t be the last. Watching this video, I was thinking how similar these discussions were to the debate surrounding current controversial topics in science, for example, stem cell research, nuclear waste disposal, and containment in the BL4 lab in Roxbury. I’d like to think that I’d still be happy living near a BL4 facility, but after all, I am a scientist and I at least have some idea how the people who built the facility decided it was safe. It is very easy, when you don’t see things from a scientist’s perspective, to be concerned about decisions made from that point of view. Although I knew that the media and the public can often make a bigger deal out of issues like these than necessary, this video helped me realize how important it is that scientists communicate clearly with the public. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t realize Dr. Ptashne was being pretentious until other people mentioned it. Hopefully, I can learn to communicate my ideas without being condescending or confusing.