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From: gv@hou2e.UUCP (A.VANNUCCI)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.research,net.misc
Subject: Re: Newman's Energy Machine (2)
Message-ID: <721@hou2e.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Oct-85 17:30:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: hou2e.721
Posted: Fri Oct 25 17:30:38 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 19:41:00 EDT
References: <175@tulane.UUCP>, <471@iham1.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
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Xref: watmath net.physics:3439 net.research:296 net.misc:8768


   Given the recent flood of postings about Newman's machine,
it seems appropriate to reproduce here an editorial from the
latest issue of SCIENCE magazine (N.B. *not* SCIENCE DIGEST),
25 October 1985.

--------------------------------------------------------------

SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

   It is time to consider the problem of biconceptual education.
The world today is divided into two conceptual groups, the
scientist and the nonscientist, and the communication gap
between them is wide and serious.  It is not a problem of
respect for scientists.  We scientists get all the respect
we need -- any more is likely to make us candidates for
television commercials.  I am not saying that lawyers should
start reading the "Physical Review Letters" or mayors the
"Journal of the American Chemical Society".  What concerns me
is that some of the fundamental concepts and methodologies of
science are outside the understanding of the vast majority of
the population, including its opinion-makers.

   For example, scientists in every discipline understand that
certain decisions that must be made are associated with some level
of risk, but we watch with consternation as society acts as if zero
risk could be achieved.  The same parents, for instance, who drive
their children to school without seat belts demand a flat statement
of certainty about the risk posed to their children by being in
school with a child with AIDS.  The ever-rising levels of
malpractice awards are based on the premise that if doctors are
punished enough they will become perfect, but ignore the possible
outcome that the consequent fee increases will inhibit those with
marginal incomes from going to the doctor.  Living near a nuclear
power plant may be safer than attending a rock concert, but what
television viewer would believe that?

   A second example is the methodology of "the control." When
Pasteur was ready to test his anthrax vaccine he infected both
the previously immunized sheep and some nonimmunized controls.
The fact that the former lived and the latter died showed that he 
had made an effective vaccine.  Political and civic decisions are
frequently made, however, with no attempt to obtain a control
sample, which would help determine the efficacy of a course of
action.  I attended a school board meeting at which a new math 
program was proposed.  A board member suggested that students be
divided by lot into two groups, one group to be taught by the new
math and one by the old math, with some evaluation at the end of
the year.  He was denounced by almost everyone at the meeting
because one should not conduct "a lottery with students' lives."
Prison programs on rehabilitation, medicare programs to balance
costs, bilingual education programs, and many other worthy
enterprises might be better handled, and more readily improved,
if the initial experiments had appropriate controls.

   These two examples of scientific concepts are directly transferable
to public policy and should be taught to students at the elementary,
high school, and college levels.  They should be part of a screening
test for television anchors, judges, and gubernatorial candidates.
Instead, most schools today are diminishing science requirements.
Even at the college level, the few universities that have general
education requirements allow them to be satisfied by tourist-bus
surveys of the wonders of astronomy or the marvels of the body,
rather than by a more demanding course in the simple logic of
science.  Judges and legislators with little or no scientific
training are making sweeping decisions on risks to the environment
and from nuclear war and industrial accidents.  Common sense would
argue that an organization such as the Environmental Protection
Agency should list the major hazards to health and evaluate them
systematically, taking the most important first instead of the most
recent headline case.

   Scientists will be denounced for trying to introduce cold-blooded
reason into an area in which warm-blooded humanity is supposed to
reign supreme.  But warm emotion frequently gives way to hot-headed
anger and even bigotry.  The scientific method has been the most
effective means of overcoming poverty, starvation, and disease.
Even those who are not professional scientists can understand its
fundamental concepts, which will aid their decision-making in an
incrasingly difficult and technological world.  It is time to
bridge the "concept gap" by improving scientific literacy.


                          Daniel E. Koshland, Jr.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Judging by what one reads in netnews, Mr. Koshland has underestimated
the pervasiveness of the problem !

   By the way, SCIENCE magazine is published by the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and, next to NATURE, is probably
the best magazine in the world dealing with science in general.  Many of
its articles may often be difficult for the non-specialist; however,
AAAS also publishes another magazine intended for a wider audience:
SCIENCE 85.  Its style is more similar to that of SCIENCE DIGEST and
OMNI, but without the inaccuracies and pseudo science.   If you like
SCIENCE DIGEST and OMNI, you'll like SCIENCE 85 a lot better and you
will get much more accurate information.

		Giovanni Vannucci
		AT&T Bell Laboratories      HOH R-207
		Holmdel, NJ 07733
		hou2e!gv