TEXT 20. SCIENCE AND ITS FUTURE

Can the average person really understand science? Does the average person want to know about science? Does science matter to us? The answer to these questions is a resounding yes!

For many of us, however, the mere memory of physics, chemistry, and biology classes in high school and college makes our eyes glaze over. We left the classroom with the belief that science was dull and abstract and virtually impossible for the average person to understand. Back then, it wasn’t cool to understand science, and it seemed to have little immediate relevance to our lives. Yet as we matured and discoveries headed into the world, we found ourselves face to face with sophisticated computers at work and frequent headlines about matters of science – mapping the human genetic make-up, cloning, test-tube babies, and the August 1996 discovery of the possibility of past life on Mars, to name a few. Suddenly, scientific knowledge has not only become acceptable, it has become a useful, essential, and inescapable part of our lives.

For some of us, our fascination with science began in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik or when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon – striking evidence of man’s ability to apply scientific knowledge to accomplish extraordinary goals. For others, all it took to become interested in science was getting out of high school or merely witnessing the unending series of new scientific achievements and inventions that occurred during the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s: the Venus landing, Fiber optics, deciphering DNA code, black holes, space stations, microchips and computers, microsurgery, the Space Shuttle, heart transplants, artificial hearts, superconductivity, the discovery of other solar systems, and much more.

You don’t have to be a theoretical physicist to be awed by space exploration or curious about whether life exists on Mars or how Universe began. You don’t have to be a biochemist to have an interest in the fundamental processes of life. It’s impossible not to be curious about such matters. Scientific knowledge and discoveries are much too interesting and profound to be left only to scientists.

Science can be fascinating. Many great discoveries of past have now, in our lifetime, culminated in the most incredible and pervasive scientific and technological revolution that could be imagined. Whether we approve of it or not, we're swept up in that revolution and the resulting culture – unless you live in a cave. Not only is science fascinating, it matters to us because it is our life. They say that whatever road we take, our fate is indissolubly bound up with science. It is essential as a matter of simple survival for us to understand science. The more we know science, the better we understand life. It means feeling more comfortable with our everyday lives, and using science and technology to accomplish goals. Science is a part of our culture and heritage. It is of great importance for not merely “ivory tower” intellectuals but for the masses of average people.

Knowledge is our destiny. Homo sapiens will continue to search for the answers to new questions. We will develop new concepts, new theories, and we will continue our quest to understand the natural world. We must continue to discover, create, explore, and invent. We must search for the cure and the life-saving solution, for we are the discoverers, creators, explorers, and inventors. We seek the unknown – the deep, the dark, the never before seen – and we have within us the capacity for ever greater wisdom.

We have come to the future. We have found our place by looking back and understanding history. We are poised to become twenty-first centurions. As one scientist said: “We don't have to look too far to see the future. We can already see it will be magnificent.” We have now reached the 15-billion-year journey.

 

Exercise 1

Look through the text again and entitle it.

Exercise 2

Look through the text once more and say what kind of passage it is:

1. A scientific paper.

2. A fragment from a science fiction story.

3. An introduction to a book for science students.

4. A fragment from a popular scientific article.

What makes you think so?

Exercise 3

Read the text thoroughly with a dictionary and answer the following questions:

1. What does the author say about general attitude to science in high school or college?

2. When, according to the author, do we find ourselves face to face with science?

3. Where is the news about scientific achievements published? What makes you think so?

4. Why, in the author’s opinion, has science become a useful, essential and inescapable part of our lives?

5. What scientific achievements of the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s does the author mention?

6. Why does the author think it's impossible not to be curious about scientific matters?

7. Why does science matter to us?

8. Who does the author call “ivory tower” intellectuals?

9. Do you agree with the answer to the questions given at the beginning of the text? What makes you think so?

 

Exercise 4

Read the next text connected with science and give answers to the following questions:

1. What to your mind might be a title of the text?

2. How have the relations between science and society changed?

3. What scientific achievements are gaining catastrophic values?

4. Are the dangers really exaggerated?

5. What is the “ivory tower” attitude to scientific achievements?

6. In what case can we escape our own destruction on this planet?

7. What is a “technophobic” point of view on the development of science?

8. Who is there to advocate the interests of mankind?

9. What else besides science needs reforming?

10. What attitude to science and its development is called out-of-date?

 

The relations between science and society have changed over the centuries. When modern science was born during the Renaissance, its first epoch was a fight for its life against an authoritarian and representative society. After the fight had been won, science released creative forces leading to the scientific avalanche. The second epoch started in the Age of Enlightment, in itself partly the result of the application of scientific thinking to society. It resulted in the destruction of the feudal society and added more momentum to the march of science. The third epoch began with the technological application of science, which has done more to change the quality of human life than any other development in the history of mankind.

Thus far science had displayed only a benevolent aspect. But the forth epoch is marked by increasing fear of the negative aspects of science which are the product of its very success. The dynamic society caused by science is marked by a large number of exponentially increasing variables. Too many of them are now approaching catastrophic values. The atomic bomb, the population explosion, and the deterioration of the human environment are all the products of science, or rather of the malfunctioning of the relations between science and society. We are facing a serious crisis. There are many people, including scientists, who call these fears “doomsday prophesies”, and claim the dangers are exaggerated. Are not the bombs in the hands of responsible people? Does not the Earth abound in waste land ready to absorb the population increase? Is pollution really such a serious problem? Admittedly some of the fears may be exaggerated, but no one who has made any serious study of the arms race and the population explosion can fail to be alarmed. Lack of concern stems either from ignorance or from the attitude of apres nous le deluge (после нас хоть потоп). Among scientists there also exists a third variant, often termed the “ivory tower” attitude: a scientist should be a scientist and nothing else. His works aim at the increase of knowledge, and knowledge is a good in itself. He should leave to others the task of deciding how to use it. This attitude worked perfectly throughout the whole long era during which science contributed almost exclusively to the progress of mankind. But this is no longer the case. How are we to tackle this crisis? Some have adopted the defeatist view that our scientific-technological culture carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Man rules the Earth at present but will soon be extinct, like dinosaurs who were once masters of the world. Our crazed technology and outmoded political systems are the instruments of our own destruction. Perhaps few of us can escape and start a new culture if we get away from the Blue Planet in time and form a space colony. All this may be true, but we must strive instead for other solutions. They don’t lie easy to hand. Some think that the development of science and technology should be halted. This “technophobic” view is shortsighted. Science and technology confer such enormous benefits that they must not be halted but used in a sensible way. We come closer to the truth if we say that it is the rules that govern world politics that must be changed: power politics have now become so dangerous that they must be abolished. Scientists and technologists are accustomed to look with pride at all the “progress curves” that rise exponentially and think it is their agreeable duty to keep them rising or even induces them to rise still faster. But we have now learned that the rise of many of these curves spells disaster, and scientists cannot plead innocence by putting the blame on others by saying: “We, scientists, are simply doing our job, and “others” must take the blame if our findings are used irresponsibly.” There are no “others” willing to assume the responsibility. There are many instances in which new discoveries can bring power and wealth to certain groups, but only at the expense of others. Possibly mankind as a whole is paying the price through a decline in security, the deterioration of human environment, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In cases such as these, who is there to advocate the interests of mankind? Indeed, there are few who are capable of it, since often only a handful of specialists really understand the consequences of new discoveries.

 

Exercise 5

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