Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society

Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society PDF

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-09-23

Total Pages: 66

ISBN-13: 0309377951

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Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science. This report explores empirical evidence on public opinion and attitudes toward life sciences as they relate to societal issues, whether and how contentious debate about select life science topics mediates trust, and the roles that scientists, business, media, community groups, and other stakeholders play in creating and maintaining public confidence in life sciences. Does the Public Trust Science? Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society highlights research on the elements of trust and how to build, mend, or maintain trust; and examine best practices in the context of scientist engagement with lay audiences around social issues.

Science for Sale

Science for Sale PDF

Author: David L. Lewis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-08-27

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1510743170

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For the first time in paperback and with a new introduction. Discover how and why the government is corrupting scientific research. When Speaker Newt Gingrich greeted Dr. David Lewis in his office overlooking the National Mall, he looked at Dr. Lewis and said: “You know you’re going to be fired for this, don’t you?” “I know,” Dr. Lewis replied, “I just hope to stay out of prison.” Gingrich had just read Dr. Lewis’s commentary in Nature, titled “EPA Science: Casualty of Election Politics.” Three years later, and thirty years after Dr. Lewis began working at EPA, he was back in Washington to receive a Science Achievement Award from Administrator Carol Browner for his second article in Nature. By then, EPA had transferred Dr. Lewis to the University of Georgia to await termination—the Agency’s only scientist to ever be lead author on papers published in Nature and Lancet. The government hires scientists to support its policies; industry hires them to support its business; and universities hire them to bring in grants that are handed out to support government policies and industry practices. Organizations dealing with scientific integrity are designed only to weed out those who commit fraud behind the backs of the institutions where they work. The greatest threat of all is the purposeful corruption of the scientific enterprise by the institutions themselves. The science they create is often only an illusion, designed to deceive; and the scientists they destroy to protect that illusion are often our best. This book is about both, beginning with Dr. Lewis’s experience, and ending with the story of Dr. Andrew Wakefield. This new edition, now for the first time in paperback, features a new introduction by the author.

Science, Technology, and Government

Science, Technology, and Government PDF

Author: Murray N. Rothbard

Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute

Published: 2015-07-22

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1610166388

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In this previously unpublished manuscript, found in the Rothbard Archives, Rothbard deftly turns the tables on the supporters of big government and their mandate for control of research and development in all areas of the hard sciences. What R&D should be encouraged and funded, what inventions should be supported, and what areas should be given research grants, etc.? These decisions can only be decided by markets unburdened by government meddling and intervention. Rothbard shows that science best advances under the free market: the claims to the contrary of the centralizers are spurious. The best course of action for government is to get out of the way ...

Science, the Endless Frontier

Science, the Endless Frontier PDF

Author: United States. Office of Scientific Research and Development

Publisher:

Published: 1945

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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This influential report described science as "a largely unexplored hinterland" that would provide the "essential key" to the economic prosperity of the post World War II years.

Playing Politics with Science

Playing Politics with Science PDF

Author: David B. Resnik

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2009-01-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0199704686

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In the last decade, science in the United States has become increasingly politicized, as government officials have been accused of manipulating, distorting, subverting, and censoring science for ideological purposes. Political gamesmanship has played a major role in many different areas of science, including the debate over global climate change, embryonic stem cell research, government funding of research, the FDA's approval process, military intelligence related to Iraq, research with human subjects, and the teaching of evolution in public schools. In Playing Politics with Science, David B. Resnik explores the philosophical, political, and ethical issues related to the politicalization of science and develops a conceptual framework for thinking about government restrictions on scientific practice. Resnik argues that the public has a right and a duty to oversee scientific research to protect important social values and hold scientists accountable for their actions, but that inappropriate government control over science can erode the integrity and trustworthiness of research, hamper scientific creativity and innovation, undermine the fairness and effectiveness of government and policies informed by science, discourage talented researchers from working for the government, and violate the freedom of scientists. Resnik also makes policy recommendations for protecting science from politicalization, and maintains that scientific autonomy and government control must be properly balanced so that restrictions on science can benefit society without undermining scientific research, education, and expert advice.

The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950

The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950 PDF

Author: Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2018-03-13

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1469636417

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In this history of the social and human sciences in Mexico and the United States, Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt reveals intricate connections among the development of science, the concept of race, and policies toward indigenous peoples. Focusing on the anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, physicians, and other experts who collaborated across borders from the Mexican Revolution through World War II, Rosemblatt traces how intellectuals on both sides of the Rio Grande forged shared networks in which they discussed indigenous peoples and other ethnic minorities. In doing so, Rosemblatt argues, they refashioned race as a scientific category and consolidated their influence within their respective national policy circles. Postrevolutionary Mexican experts aimed to transform their country into a modern secular state with a dynamic economy, and central to this endeavor was learning how to "manage" racial difference and social welfare. The same concern animated U.S. New Deal policies toward Native Americans. The scientists' border-crossing conceptions of modernity, race, evolution, and pluralism were not simple one-way impositions or appropriations, and they had significant effects. In the United States, the resulting approaches to the management of Native American affairs later shaped policies toward immigrants and black Americans, while in Mexico, officials rejected policy prescriptions they associated with U.S. intellectual imperialism and racial segregation.

Nature's Government

Nature's Government PDF

Author: Richard Drayton

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780300059762

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This daring attempt to juxtapose the histories of Britain, western science, and imperialism shows how colonial expansion, from the age of Alexander the Great to the 20th century, led to complex kinds of knowledge.

Social Science in Government

Social Science in Government PDF

Author: Richard P. Nathan

Publisher: Rockefeller Institute Press

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0914341650

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A new, substantially updated, and expanded version of a classic work on how to evaluate public policy published over a decade ago.