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Sciences are creative too

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There’s an interesting essay by Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association on the UK’s Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) website about British attitudes to science and the notion that science is part of ‘culture’ in the way that the arts are. From the Science and Public Attitudes project page on the website,

I have always been interested in what the Public Attitude Surveys tell us, and not least to use the results to challenge those who still persist in claiming that the UK public is ‘anti-science’ when it is clearly nothing of the sort.

This time round I developed a particular interest in the concept of science and culture, leading out of the work we did on the Science for All Group (http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/site/all/). In our Report and Action Plan we identified a number of actions to encourage UK cultural institutions to take a strategic approach to the sciences in culture, and we recommended that public perceptions of science and culture should be explored in this upcoming Survey.

It has always irked me that the arts community in the UK seems to have purloined the words ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’ as if they are synonymous with the ‘arts’. For example, the European Capital of Culture bidding process, and that of the UK City of Culture, have no requirement for a science-based cultural programme (though the use of digital technologies is graciously and instrumentally encouraged in the latter to ‘maximise participation and access’). Not that I have anything against the arts, but my concept of culture and of creativity certainly includes the sciences, and they are implicitly excluded in the way these bidding documents are written and interpreted.

So, it is good to see the Public Attitudes Survey 2011 seeking to test out how the public views science and culture.

I look forward to seeing the Public Attitudes Survey when it is released in March 2011.

What does the public (US) know about nanotech and synthetic biology?

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I listened to the live webcast this am from the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) which featured the results of a poll and focus group research on awareness of nanotechnology and of synthetic biology. Two speakers from Peter D. Hart Research Associates and David Rejeski, PEN’s executive director.  presented the results from a national survey of 1003 adults conducted from August 25 – 28, 2008. According to the results 75% of adults know little or nothing about nanotechnology with 89% for synthetic biology.

Before receiving notices about the webcast I hadn’t heard of synthetic biology either although I have come across similar research (e.g. my July 8 and 9, 2008 postings ‘Nano, proteins, and Dr. Hongbin Li’).

The research pollsters defined synthetic biology this way, “Synthetic biology is the use of advanced science and engineering to make or redesign living organisms, such as bacteria, so that they can carry out specific functions. Synthetic biology involves making new genetic code, also known as DNA, that does not already exist in nature.”

They also ran clips from focus group work where discussions centered on synthetic biology. Unfortunately, the quality wasn’t great so I didn’t catch much from the clips.

My favourite question was the one about the wording for the description of synthetic biology. You’ll notice that they used the words “make or redesign living organisms” as they told the audience they’d purposefully steered away from the word “create” or any other words which might set people off.

I don’t believe they’ve posted the webcast yet but you can get a copy of the powerpoint presentation from here and, likely, the webcast in a few days.