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Science Out of Touch

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A glance at the fall issue of "The Fletcher Forum on World Affairs": Bridging the chasm between science and society

Public disillusionment with the advances of science and technology is growing, largely because of the lack of connection between research progress and the needs of average people, writes Ihsan Dogramaci, founder of Turkey's Bilkent University. Mr. Dogramaci compares science in the late 20th century to the Roman Catholic Church in medieval Europe in that it is "intellectual and abstract." While noting that science has for centuries helped people, Mr. Dogramaci criticizes the research enterprise for failing to communicate with most people, and for leaving behind people in developing nations. Citing Gandhi and other philosophers, he calls for new priorities in science. Among them: "Learn to study and recover the whole instead of the parts," "avoid polarizing knowledge and stress its unity," and "bend our methods to nature, not nature to our methods." Mr. Dogramaci calls for less emphasis on "big science" and more on "community-based research," where local communities would help shape research priorities. Citing his own university's experience, he says that citizens who lack formal scientific training, but who believe that science will help them and that they can have a say in it, will support larger budgets for research. "Since knowledge is ultimately pursued by people for the sake of people," he writes. "it should be another of our tasks to insure that common people are actively involved in solving their own problems." The article is not available on line, but information about the journal may be found at http://www.tufts.edu/fletcher/forum/

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