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Science: Don't let the digging stop.

Actualizado: 22 may 2020

Science has taken a beating over recent years. I recently shared a post announcing the winner of the John Maddox Prize, a prize awarded by the Sense about Science charity to a person who has stood up for science in the face of hostility; usually someone who has been subjected to verbal abuse, trolling and actual threats to their life and those of their loved ones. And we’re not talking about attacks on laboratories which employ animal testing, we’re talking about attacks on scientists in all spheres; attacks on their ideas and their interpretation of their findings.


Perhaps one of the reasons is that science becomes perceptually linked with big pharmaceutical companies, for whom I am no apologist, who are seen as attempting to control us into needing their newest drugs. Ben Goldacre in his book Bad Pharma certainly raises the lid on some issues here, but that’s not the aim of this blog.


Another common criticism levelled at the scientific approach is that it is too unbending and single-minded - not holistic. Or, alternatively, scientists are accused of forever changing their minds.


But science is a concept, not a person. If an experiment or piece of research is carried out without the necessary rigour or acknowledgement of its limitations then it’s not science anyway.


Science is an approach to looking at the world. It doesn’t say ‘I definitely know the answer’. It says ‘This is what seems to be the case right now from what I’ve observed, but maybe if I look a little deeper, further, longer, I’ll find out more. I’m prepared to find a different explanation and, when I do, I’ll still keep on observing,' hence the apparent frequent changes of mind. Science is constantly curious and a scientific approach attempts to take all the relevant variables into account. It is never judgmental. It just says it like it is. It couldn’t be more flexible or holistic.


Another reason for feeling passionate about science is its demand for precise language. Yes, in that it is unbending! I love the poetry of precision. How can we explain something that we don’t have the words for (more about that in a future blog)? We’ve all been faced with woolly language and broad generalisations when buying anything from computers to supplements to houses. What is hidden behind that language, an unpleasant truth or just a lack of knowledge?


I wonder what would happen if we all took a more scientific approach to ourselves. Rather than saying ‘I should look like that person or eat that kind of food’ instead say ‘This is how I am right now and that’s ok’ or ‘This is my current story of why I am as I am but maybe if I take time to look a little deeper, I’ll find a different story with different words that truly describe what I’m experiencing. And, just maybe, it’ll help me to speak to myself with a little more compassion.' How might that feel?


And, what if that compassion, lack of criticism and new vocabulary spilled over into how we treat each other?


But, oh my word, this isn’t something we can achieve overnight with a good talking to and a wall full of motivational quotes. It takes time, our personal stories can run very deep and may sit on a bedrock of social and political powerlessness, but then patience is another virtue of all good scientists.


Science isn’t multimillion dollar global drugs businesses or intimidating chemistry lessons at school. In its true form it’s the most inquisitive, forward-looking, inclusive concept in the world and who wouldn’t want a spadeful of that?



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