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Beginning a Dialogue on the Changing Environment for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Report of a Conference (1994) / Chapter Skim
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What Society Will Expect from the Future Research Community
Pages 28-34

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From page 28...
... They wonder why we don't invest directly in programs that benefit people, for example, housing, health care, and education, rather than waiting for indirect benefits to result from scientific research. Recently our most prominent political, economic, and scientific leaders have begun to discuss problems in the relationship between society and the research community.
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From page 29...
... An occasional issue strikes the public fancy, but for the most part public opinion about science policy does not spring fully formed from the grassroots. Most of what we think about the research community is derived from views that we have about other matters such as education, equity, and economic growth.
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From page 30...
... If someone who feeds at the public trough tells me that ~ can't have it both ways, this is just an excuse for incompetence or outright duplicity. The combination of inconsistent demands, an increasing diversity of voices, and a more democratic environment portends difficult times ahead for those who make science policy.
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From page 31...
... Society is hostile to scientific research, and contradictory demands cannot be satisfied; therefore the research community should go its own way and treat public demands on science as a public relations problem. Science is too important to be left up to the public.
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From page 32...
... Science will inform our responses, but it will not determine them. This point is relevant to an increasingly influential criticism of the research community: that it fails to provide policymakers with relevant information.
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From page 33...
... This is a dangerous trend with respect to public support for scientific research. The less the research community is part of the United States, the more it will be the object of skepticism and even scorn.
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From page 34...
... In the areas of both medical and science policy, influential proposals are on the table that would require judgments to be made not just about what is effective science or medicine, but also about how much to spend and how to allocate resources across specialties and disciplines. The most profound institutional question that we face is not whether there will be bodies that make these decisions, but how they will be constituted.
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Key Terms

  • science education
  • changing environment
  • public universities
  • public opinion
  • issues involved

  • transform human
  • delivering quality
  • community enjoys
  • directly benefit
  • policy establishment

  • foreign graduate
  • require judgments
  • distinct values
  • american science
  • future people

  • education means
  • obtain benefits
  • relevant information
  • human fulfillment
  • help shape

  • various diseases
  • portends difficult
  • research leads
  • form future
  • increasingly privatized

  • deficit reduction
  • influential dissent
  • increasingly negative
  • accredit workers
  • throw people


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