Donald Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief, Science
Notion that science might have some influence on policy.
Lively time for the congruence of science and policy.
Metaphor:
- canal, with locks along the way.
- each lock represents a barrier or hurdle.
Lock 1
- scientific publication
Lock 2
- interpretation by science writers
- distrust among scientists and science writers
- writers consider scientists unnecessarily obtuse
- scientists consider writers shallow
- writers are not evenly distributed or abundant
- not enough work on getting scientists to explain work to broader public
Lock 3
- reasons for non-disclosure (e.g., national interest/security)
- example: publication of the sequence for the 1918 Spanish influensa virus by scientists
- conflicting policy interpretations from elected, appointed, and civil servant officials
- “sensitive, but unclassified,” “deemed export”
- struggle between science and security limitations will continue
Lock 4
- secrecy for political comfort
- writing edited/changed for political reasons (e.g., FDA, NASA, etc.)
- not an issue of national security
- tailoring scientific results for political agendas, sanitizing reports
- science of climate change represents a serious example of this problem
Colleagues need to get over the notion that there is something wrong with popularizing science.
