Friday, January 27, 2012

Time to End the squeaky-clean image of science

Time to End the squeaky-clean image of science

Since the end WW II there has been a PR effort to make science look absolutely squeaky-clean. After WWII science looked scary and so a PR campaign was started on both sides of the Atlantic As a result of this PR campaign science has put forth the image of being "trustworthy, morally upright, objective and dispassionate, and providing a well-defined path from hypothesis to experiment to deduction that will reliably deliver advances and improvements" as stated by New Scientist. This is an image that is not entirely true. Scientists can be just as stubborn an passionate as any one else and objectivity is not as clear cut as the PR campaign would have one to believe.

It has actually led to the nerdy scientist steriotype that scares many teen away from science. Presenting the real haman side of science would go a long way to changing that. It has also given scientists a level of credasbility that has neen used for propaganda perposes and political gain.

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