Risk-taking is imperative in science — but I always tell people, learn to fail quickly, and move on to the next thing. Big fails are very dangerous to your career. In our case, I was genuinely alarmed when, after three years, we got a crazy result that was hard to believe. It seemed to be I had violated my own rule — I was about to fail after three years of hard work.
What scientific theories can we no longer take for granted, and how will questioning them help us approach the many challenges we face in new, perhaps more productive ways? Scientists, ultimately, can take nothing for granted.
Which to many seems at odds with the fundamental hierarchical system on which scientific evidence is founded, but is actually at the heart of science. We can simultaneously challenge everything, by building up layer upon layer of complexity based on generations of work. It tells you something is wrong in the current orthodoxy. But a lot of what we do is right — and so it is imperative for scientists to not play it safe, but rather challenge the orthodoxy in a wide variety of ways, if we are going to find out our false understandings, so that we can make progress.
As we get more and more data, we are learning that interpreting data is subtle. And finally, scientists need to appreciate that to have impact, increasingly, we need to understand the human side of what we are doing. We can no longer work in isolation. Understanding the ethics and how our work interacts with humans and the way they think and behave is paramount. If we can work in parallel with this human side, our technological progress could have the impact that the planet so desperately needs.
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But it could use a guiding hand to nudge it in a direction that will benefit humanity as a whole. Its discovery led to the development of the most destructive weapons known. Some argue that the fear of destruction has been a powerful motivator for peace, but this is hardly a stable solution as can be seen with today's situation with North Korea.
On the other hand, nuclear fission also promised a reliable source of energy that was once optimistically predicted to be 'too cheap to meter'.
Science is the pursuit of knowledge about ourselves and the world around us. That pursuit of knowledge has also shaped the way we view the world, as has the application of the knowledge. It has transformed our lives, generally for the better. We live nearly twice as long today as our ancestors did in and the quality of our lives is far better than it was then. But the uses of science and technology are not shaped by science and scientists alone. They depend on an interplay of cultural, economic and political factors.
Science is a triumph of human knowledge and we can all share in its excitement. At the same time, understanding its many uses can help us be engaged in decisions that affect us all.
Image source, Science Photo Library. Discovering the structure of DNA was a "big moment" in science. Image source, Royal Society. Modern inventions often rely on discoveries that are a few hundred years old, says Venki Ramakrishnan. Global change calculator. Image source, SPL. We were able to work out that the Universe began with a Big Bang from a single point. Image source, NASA. Advances in space exploration have made us more inquisitive about the great unknown.
Image source, Getty Images. The science is there. The money is not. Listen to the scientists. Invite them to talk. They have many things, a lot of solutions you can do.
But this reduction is primarily due to the switch away from coal in energy production and the outsourcing of industry to the developing world such as China. Recent environmental strikes and protests are a cause for hope, as the concerns scientists have been voicing are finally being listened to. But they also show the extent of the neglect of this climate science, for decades met with half-promises and limited action from the people in power. If it takes a worldwide campaign and over UK protesters to be arrested, just for politicians to vaguely listen to pleas to consult with scientists, then something is fundamentally wrong.
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