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1st
EMBL/EMBO Joint Conference 2000 |
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Session I |
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Panel discussion How to restore public trust in science |
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Maynard
Olson [Chair], Professor of Medicine and Genetics,
Director of University of Washington Genome Center,
USA
Beate Weber,
Lady Major of Heidelberg, Germany
Tom Wilkie, Head of Biomedical Ethics, Wellcome Trust, UK
Julian Kinderlerer,
Assistant Director of the Sheffield Institute of Biotechnological
Law and Ethics, UK
Orla Smith,
Senior Editor, Science, USA
Maurizio Iaccarino,
International Institute of Genetics and Biophysics, Naples,
Italy
First of all, let us identify some of the main reasons why public trust
in science gets undermined.
Science is complicated. It often requires specialized knowledge and experience
to grasp the significance of scientific advances and to appreciate their
practical implications. People fear what they do not understand. We all
believe in better public education about science, but our ideas about
how to promote it may be unrealistic. It is implausible that there will
be big changes in public "scientific literacy." We need to learn to do
better talking to people where they are. The challenge of doing so is
great. Many scientists live in a subculture that is quite detached from
ordinary life, even from the ordinary life of educated members of affluent
societies. With other groups, the cultural gap is even larger.
Scientists overpromise. There is a widespread belief, not entirely without
foundation, that the most effective way to "sell" science is emphasizing
near-term practical applications, particularly to human health. History
teaches us that advancing scientific knowledge does correlate, on a time
scale of decades, with applications that greatly improve human welfare.
On a shorter time scale, the relationship between support for science
and practical applications is highly unpredictable. Even the relationship
between major scientific discoveries and practical applications is erratic.
We live in an impatient, utilitarian age in which cautious voices are
readily drowned out by hucksterism. Indeed, it is age in which hucksterism
pays particularly well.
Scientists are losing their scholarly aura. Along with high salaries,
large grants, lucrative consulting fees, and stock options comes loss
of credibility. Many scientists, particularly those with high public profiles,
are serving a variety of masters. When they speak out on issues of public
interest, it is not always clear that they are bringing their best, objective
judgment to bear on complex issues. They may simply be trying to run up
the stock price of their company.
Scientists do not always bring good news. Humanity is facing problems
of ever-increasing complexity. Scientists are often the source of the
unwelcome news that these problems are real, that some of them will get
worse before they get better, and that politically popular "solutions"
to them are poorly considered. Shooting the messenger who brings bad news
will remain in style.
Biographies
Maynard
Olson [Chair]
Maynard Olson graduated from Caltech with a Bachelor1s
degree in chemistry and received his PhD in inorganic chemistry from Stanford
University in 1970, where his thesis advisor was Henry Taube. After five
years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry at Dartmouth College,
he changed his research emphasis to molecular genetics, working with Benjamin
Hall in the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington. During
that period, in the late 19701s, he participated in early applications
of recombinant-DNA techniques to problems in yeast genetics; his research
with Hall included the first sequencing of a mutant eukaryotic gene and
one of the first applications of restriction-fragment length polymorphisms.
In 1979, he moved to the Department of Genetics at Washington University
in St. Louis, where he became a Professor of Genetics in 1986 and an Investigator
of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1989. At Washington University,
he participated in the development of systematic approaches to the analysis
of complex genomes, working both on the yeast and human genomes. This
research included the development of new implementations of pulsed-field
gel electrophoresis, including field-inversion gel electrophoresis, determination
of the first complete electrophoretic karyotype of a eukaryotic organism,
the development of computer-based methods for the construction of whole-genome
physical maps based on clone fingerprints, the development of the yeast-artifi-cial-
chromosome cloning system, and introduction of STS-content mapping as
an approach to the low-resolution physical mapping of mammalian genomes.
In 1992, he was awarded the Genetics Society of America Medal. Later that
year, he moved back to the University of Washington where he is now Professor
of Medicine and Genetics and Director of the University of Washington
Genome Center. In 1994, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Olson has also participated in the formulation of policy for the Human
Genome Project. In 1987, he served on the National Research Council Committee
on Mapping and Sequencing of the Human Genome, and from 1989 to 1992,
he was a member of the Program Advisory Committee on the Human Genome
at the National Institutes of Health. Presently, he is on the National
Human Genome Research Institute Council. Professor of Medicine and Genetics,
Director of University of Washington Genome Center, USA
Beate Weber
Beate Weber, Lady Mayor of the city of Heidelberg, received
her degree in Education from University of Heidelberg and the Heidelberg
College of Education. After teaching for several years in an elementary
school and at the Heidelberg International Comprehensive School, she became
a city councilor in Heidelberg.
From 1979 to 1990, Weber was a member of the European Parliament, where
she also served as Vice-president and then President of the Committee
on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection. In 1990, she
was elected Lady Mayor of the City of Heidelberg, and was granted a second
term in 1998. She has been a member of Kommission Zukunft Stadt 200, the
Federal Ministry for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development
[1992-1993], the Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life,
UNDP, UNESCO [1993-1996], of the German National Committee HABITAT II,
the Federal Ministry for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development
[1995- 1996], and the International Advisory Council of the Executives1
Club of Chicago/USA [since 1997]. Since January 1997 she has served as
President of the German Section of the International Institute of Administrative
Services.
Julian
Kinderlerer
Julian Kinderlerer is currently Assistant Director of
the Sheffield Institute of Biotechnological Law and Ethics. His plans
for the near future include starting an approved and large project funded
by the Wellcome Trust providing an on-line resource for bioethics in the
UK. He has been involved in issues relating to the regulation of Biotechnology
worldwide for many years, having joined the UK's Advisory Committee on
Genetic Modification in 1984, when it was founded. He is currently seconded
to the UNEP in Nairobi to help develop capacity Building projects in Biosafety
in terms of the Cartagena Protocol and the Biological Diversity Convention.
Orla Smith
Orla Smith received a B.Sc in Zoology in 1982 from King's
College, University of London [London, UK], and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry
in 1987 from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of
London [London, UK]. From 1988 to 1992 she was a Hunkel-MACC postdoctoral
fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA,
and continued her postdoctoral work until 1995 at the Johns Hopkins Oncology
Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
In 1996 she left the bench to become the News and Views Editor at Nature
Medicine. In 1999, she was appointed Senior Editor at Science magazine.
Maurizio Iaccarino
Maurizio Iaccarino received his MD from the University
of Naples in 1962 and an Honoris Causa degree in Biology in 1999. After
some years at Stanford University, USA, and the University of Sussex,
UK, he was appointed Director of the the International Institute of Genetics
and Biophysics, Naples [1985- 1993], and Director of the Institute of
Molecular Genetics, Alghero [1994-1995]. In 1996 he became Assistant Director-General
for Natural Sciences at UNESCO [1996-March 2000], where he organized several
intergovernmental Conferences, including the World Conference on Science
[Hungary 1999], the World Solar Summit [Zimbabwe, 1996], and the Pan African
Conference on Coastal Management [Mozambique, 1998].
Dr. Iaccarino has been actively involved in science management throughout
his career. He has been a member of the National Committees for Evaluation
of Research in Biology and Biotechnology, and has sat on evaluation boards
of several international organizations [European Commission, EMBO, Human
Frontier Science Program, and the British Council]. He has served as a
member of the EMBO Council and of the Board of Trustees of the Human Frontier
Science Program.
His research interests include protein structure and characterization;
DNA methylation; genetics and molecular biology of the Rhizobium-legume
symbiosis. |
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