The struggle over science

[tocqueville]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4172504.stm

A POINT OF VIEW
By Harold Evans

In his weekly opinion column, Harold Evans considers rising concern in the US over the Bush administration's hostility to science.

I used to get mad at the way it was left to America to bring to full fruition fine achievements by Britain's scientists, inventors and engineers. Take Alexander Fleming's penicillin, Frank Whittle's jet engine, Alan Turing's computer and Robert Watson Watt's radar.

All these breakthroughs found their fullest exploitation in the United States. Indeed, they all contributed to America's pre-eminence in science-based manufacturing and services.

Think of the personal computer and wonder drugs, of the jumbo jetliner, video games and the pacemaker, the laser that counts your groceries and the laser, or the global positioning satellite, that tells you to turn left at the roundabout.

[achtung_circus]

1. Jeebus didn't have sihince.

It is a sad symptom of an increasing taking of refuge in religion.

[HereSince1628]

2. Science undermines fundamentalist religion and leads to regulations

that cost business money and drive jobs overseas. We have to protect our children from being sucked into a vortex of immorality and decadence by liberal educators bent on destroying our Christian free enterprise system.

[freethought]

3. With 'W' I think part of it is personal

Bush spent his undergrad and his business school education at two of the nation's premier science and education institutions. Yale and Harvard. There is no doubt in my mind that he had some interaction with science majors, both grad and undergrad. I willing to bet he was resentful of these people. Why? Scientists are educated, trained, and work hard to wrap their brains around extremely complex ideas, use scientific, analytical, and statistical techniques. Mix it up with the various types of sciences Physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc... Not only that, those who choose to pursue scientific careers have to committ to 4 years undergrad, 2 years to master's another 4 or 5 years to PhD and an aircraft carrier load of student debt. Bush's problem? He is entirely, totally, thoroughly incapable of anything that I mentioned above. And he knows it.

For Bush, it is the easy way out to fall back on an ideology than work to understand science. We have called it Bush's intellectual laziness.