Forces Driving More
nology,” observed Carl Sagan. At one time the platform for science was
firmly grounded in developing knowledge that advanced societal under-
standing. But as we began to think of science as simply another tool for
enriching personal lifestyles, corporate profits, and political power, the
platform for science was being sold off and dismantled.
What is happening is not new. As Thomas Hobbes noted centuries
ago, men will argue about the rules of geometry if they find it in their
interest to do so. But as our lives become ever more intertwined with
science, there are increasing incentives and rewards for altering the plat-
form for science for personal and corporate gain. The methods are often
subtle and avoid directly attacking the science itself. In the course of
my career, I have yet to meet another person conversant in science who
did not endorse science as vital to our lives. Yet while each affirmed its
importance, I’ve witnessed numerous efforts to weaken the platform
for science by trying to cut funding, undermine the collection of data,
or misconstrue the results and scientific methods whenever the science-
based evidence threatened profits, market share, standards of living, or
livelihoods.
The adage that “knowledge is power” comes from the Latin expres-
sion scientia potentia est, a reminder that science—objective evidence-
based knowledge of the world around us and inside us—is the power
that has transformed human civilization. That power transformed
America’s western deserts into fields of leafy green produce, and stopped
worldwide hunger through the Green Revolution. Yet the same power
is also evident in nuclear warheads and chemicals of mass destruction
created to annihilate life. Or in the destruction of the Aral Sea, once
the fourth-largest lake in the world and now one of the planet’s worst
environmental disasters.
The power of science is supported by a platform for science. Erode
the platform by selling access, neglecting basic research, undermining
the scientific method, or accepting science only conditionally, and the
integrity of science is compromised. When any of this happens, science
becomes an exercise in GIGO—garbage in, garbage out.
A belief that science should serve us subverts an understanding of
how it actually works. The role of science is not to make our lives better.
The role of science is to provide knowledge. What we do with that