Comments | maewfannwr: Science, the public, and university

maewfannwr

Science, the public, and university

Dec 04, 2009 02:38

I just read this article, and started reading through the comments on it. A surprising number of them were reasoned and well-written. In general I didn't agree with the article, but it's a little bit thick to pick apart right now ( Read more... )

Comments 3

christheblogger December 3 2009, 16:09:31 UTC

South of the US aside, suspicion of scientists is relatively new. Scientists have always been portrayed as a little odd in movies and so on. But not dishonest. The reason that perceptions have changed is because the conduct of scientists have changed ( ... )

maewfannwr December 3 2009, 16:29:50 UTC

I hardly agree that the conduct of scientists has changed. People have always been dishonest in order to do what they think is best. To take one example of a few scientists who have been somewhat dishonest and say "The conduct of scientists has changed" is either an unfair generalisation or a rose-coloured view of the past, or both ( ... )

christheblogger December 4 2009, 01:17:05 UTC

Scientist have changed in the past 50 or so years. For starters there are a lot more of them. Far more than the corresponding percentage rise in general population. That means that competition for public money has become more fierce, and fraud becomes more tempting. I agree with the article that something needs to change in science to make it more accountable. The democratization of science, however, sounds like nonsense ( ... )