Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

CAMBRIDGE LETTER

it is crucial that citizens understand what science is all about.

On the other side of the world, in Adelaide, South Australia, the Duke of Kent unveiled a bust to commemorate Sir William Lawrence Bragg, one of Adelaide’s most distinguished sons, and winner in 1915 of the Nobel Prize, jointly with his father, Sir William Henry Bragg, who was the first Professor of Physics at Adelaide University.

Appropriately, the Duke also launched the Royal Institution of Australia (Ri Aus) — appropriately, because both Lawrence and William Bragg in their time were Directors of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and the Duke is currently its President.

The Royal Institution has been in existence since 1799 and, somewhat surprisingly, has not previously been replicated elsewhere. The Ri Aus, referred to as the Bragg Initiative, is due to be in full operation by 2009. Its role, like that of its more venerable counterpart, will be to foster awareness of science, and science education, across Australia. In the words of Mike Rann, the Premier of South Australia — whose State is strongly supporting this nation-wide initiative — it will be a modern and exciting new hub of scientific endeavour.

Much of the motivation for the creation of this first “satellite” of the Royal Institution of Great Britain has come from Professor Susan Greenfield, of Oxford University, who is the Director of Ri GB, and who spent a period recently as Thinker in Residence at Adelaide University. She is quoted as saying: “It is my dream that the Ri Aus will be the first of many Ri satellites worldwide; a global network of organisations — exchanging programmes, knowledge and experience — with a shared enthusiasm for bringing to the public some of the science that matters most to them.”

For many people of my generation, if you were not a scientist, science was very largely a mystery, and frequently its importance was not properly recognised outside the scientific community. Modern systems of communication mean that this is no longer true; even the scientifically illiterate or ill-informed cannot fail to be aware of the significance of scientific issues. The words “global warming” are now part of the everyday vocabulary — and the huge problems to which the words refer are a matter of anguished concern.

My visit to Australia, which ended just after the launch of Ri Aus, left me in no doubt of the serious and growing problems of drought which are affecting large areas of the country. The results of drought are vividly apparent as one travels around. They pose a major problem for the politicians, and it is to science that the politicians must turn in seeking solutions. This no doubt explains in part the enthusiasm with which the Ri Aus concept is embraced.

Clearly, the existence of major problems — and not just environmental problems — for which scientific research may be a crucial route to finding solutions is a feature of very many countries. The scourge of AIDS in many parts of Africa is a case in point.

If it is important for non-scientists to be aware of the significance of scientific issues, a corollary is that scientists need to develop their capacity to explain what they are doing, and why it is important. In a brochure describing Ri Aus there is a quotation from the astronomer Carl Sagan: “It is suicide to live in a society dependent on science and technology, where nobody understands anything about science and technology”.

The record of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in communicating what science is about is impressive. The enthusiasm which has greeted the Australian initiative suggests that there are good grounds for hoping that it will build successfully on that record. It has plans to offer a wide and varied programme of discussions, performance, training sessions and exhibitions. It will work with young people. It is planning programmes to encourage art and science collaboration and to bring the worlds of politics and science together. It recognises the importance of the media, and is providing a new home for the Australian Science Media Centre, established two years ago as a national clearing house for science and media.

It has taken over 200 years to give birth to this first “satellite” of the Royal Institution. It will be interesting to see if the dream of Susan Greenfield is realised, and the Australian initiative is copied elsewhere. It certainly deserves to be.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail