Science Technology and society free essay sample

Nearly all nations now recognize that science and technology are of vital importance to their development. Yet science and technology (ST) cannot just be imported as commodities from foreign producers. For a country to enjoy the full benefit of science and technology, they must be deemed critical to the effort to achieve economic well-being and social justice, integrated into the societal decisionmaking structure, and systematically supported by policies that nurture the nation’s capacities and indigenous talent. Such interactions require the following: †¢ Policy for ST: A national commitment, by the public and private sectors alike, to promote science and technology; †¢ ST for policy: A mechanism for providing ST inputs into decisionmaking; †¢ Dissemination of knowledge: Procedures for broad public participation in critical issues, especially regarding their ST aspects. 2. 1 National ST strategies identify priorities for addressing critical needs Innovation Program (PPKIP), Chinese Academy of Sciences The PPKIP is an ambitious 12-year project (1998-2010) led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to reform and revitalize China’s science and technology infrastructure. We will write a custom essay sample on Science Technology and society or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By 2005, the Chinese Academy of Science plans to have: †¢ significantly enhanced scientific output in fundamental research in strategic areas; †¢ increased the numbers of scientific research personnel in multidisciplinary and frontier areas; †¢ created new joint laboratories with universities; †¢ established long-term cooperative relationships with distinguished foreign universities, research institutions, and companies; †¢ transformed 15-20 academy-affiliated research institutions into for-profit corporate entities; †¢ built high-tech incubators jointly with local governments; †¢ introduced venture-capital mechanisms through creation of CAS-managed venturecapital funds; and †¢ sold shares of Chinese Academy’s companies in stock markets, both at home and abroad, thus attracting capital for the rapid development of high-tech enterprises. english. cas. ac. cn IAC Report | Science, technology, and society 37 BOX Many of the recommendations in Chapters 3 through 6 that follow can be seen as parts of national policies for the promotion of science and technology. Recommendations on human-resource development, institution-building for science and technology, establishing new modes of cooperation for the private and public domains, and the generation of new funding mechanisms will all require support from a nation’s leaders, both in and out of government. There is a need to provide a coherent framework for these actions. In each nation, a national ST strategy should be developed by the government in consultation with scientific, engineering, and medical academies; the professional societies of the country; and its industrial sector. The strategy should benefit from the experiences of other countries, and it should spell out the government’s commitments to funding; standards of excellence; openness and dissemination of knowledge; regional consortia and networks; private-public interactions; and partnerships with others – locally, regionally, and globally. (See Box 10 for a description of an ambitious strategy in China to upgrade its ST enterprise. ) The practice of science in particular cannot be undertaken without a profound adherence to what has been called the values of science – a commitment to truth and honor, a certain constructive dissent among scientists, and the arbitration of disputes through rigorous methods. BOX 10 Pilot Project of the Knowledge But science is seldom left only to the scientists. Research-agenda priorities derive not just from the wishes of scientists or their interest in certain problems but also from factors such as national needs, the availability of funding, access to tools of research, and the commercial prospects for deploying the resulting technologies. What gets studied, in effect, is often decided by nonscientists. Some governments’ restrictions on certain biological research areas, for example, or a nation’s response to the unavailability of industrial funding for specific (often long-term) areas of research and development with limited commercial payback, are instances of how governments deploy scientific capacity in research in response to societal goals. The application of science for utilitarian purposes, however, usually depends on earlier basic research that was driven by scientists’ intellectual curiosity. Allowing some space to satisfy this drive, therefore, should be an element of any program to increase capacity building in ST and maintain its productivity over the long term. The exact balance between basic, strategic, applied, and adaptive research will vary from country to country, as will the domains in which the resources and talents should be deployed. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that old classifications between basic and applied, as well as the boundaries between traditional disciplines, are being overtaken by events. New ST research increasingly involves multiple disciplines and often requires conceptual and applied skills alike. Recommendations Every nation should develop an ST strategy that specifies the national priorities for research and development and spells out national funding commitments. National governments should develop national strategies for science and technology in full consultation with the country’s science, engineering, and medical academies, its professional societies, and the industrial sector. The national strategies should include support for basic science and recognize the need for high-level training to develop, as much as possible, national competence in selected frontier areas of science and technology that are most suitable for sustainable economic development and social well-being. National funding commitments for science and technology should rise to at least 1 percent – preferably 1. 5 percent – of Gross Domestic Product for each developing nation, and should be disbursed using a merit-based approach. 38 IAC Report | Science, technology, and society 2. 2 Independent scientific advice improves decisionmaking for public policies BOX 11 World Health Organization promotes The effectiveness of government programs can be greatly increased if inputs and independent review are provided by scientific, engineering, and health experts – honest brokers who bridge the gap between what is technically possible and politically achievable in areas such as agriculture, education, energy, environment, and health. For example, many international deliberations, running the gamut from intellectual property rights to environmental and health regulations, require governments to fully understand the ST premises that underlie the decisions they are negotiating. Each country therefore needs to create suitable mechanisms for providing impartial scientific and technological advice to government policymakers. Informed and reliable counsel could come from specially appointed committees of experts, standing multidisciplinary advisory bodies, independent institutions such as merit-based academies of science, engineering, or medicine, or from professional societies. (Box 11 offers an example of how ST capacity is needed to inform government policies on emerging health issues. ) The need for local biomedical expertise in all  nations, complemented by other health professionals worldwide, has been demonstrated by the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an illness first reported in 2003 in Asia, North America, and Europe. The World Health Organization (WHO) is coordinating an international investigation with the assistance of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network – a collaboration of existing institutions and networks that pool human and technical resources for rapid identification, confirmation, and response with regard to disease outbreaks of global importance. The Network  keeps the international health community constantly alerted to the threat of new outbreaks and provides appropriate technical assistance to  affected states by strengthening local infrastructure and capacity to reduce illness and prevent disease spread. Since its inception, the Network  has addressed health concerns in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China, Cote d’Ivoire,  Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kosovo, India, Madagascar, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda,  Yemen, and Zanzibar. national capacity to confront new diseases Recommendations Each national government should establish trusted indigenous mechanisms for obtain- ing advice on scientific and technological questions related to policies, programs, and international negotiations. Each nation involved in the development, production, or use of new technologies, such as those deriving from biotechnology, should have the means to assess and manage their benefits and risks. Governments should therefore ensure that indigenous ST capacities are in place (with international inputs when necessary) not only for effective adoption of a new technology, but also for help in implementing public-health, humansafety, and environmental guidelines or regulations that address potential side-effects of the new technology. The possibility of long-term effects should be kept in mind when setting up such systems, which must remain fully adaptable to rapid advances in scientific and engineering knowledge. The coordination of such efforts among nations to permit the sharing of experience and the standardization of some types of risk assessment is highly desirable. IAC Report | Science, technology, and society 39 BOX www. who. int/en/ 2. 3 The public requires dissemination of new knowledge for addressing critical issues The world’s communications networks have begun to give each individual scientist or technologist the means to help close the knowledge gap between industrialized and developing nations. Through the global system that the ST community is creating on the Internet, local investigators can stay up to date on, and participate in, cutting-edge research. And because these indigenous professionals generally understand their nation’s culture and can easily communicate with its people, they are uniquely placed to be disseminators of advanced knowledge and know-how to other critical local actors – greatly increasing the likelihood that the new technologies will be well adapted to that society’s needs and cultures. Any nation without such a core of scientists and technologists can expect to fall farther and farther behind the rest of the world. Countries at different stages of development will of course need different types of ST expertise, and they may be expected to invest in science and technology at different rates. But even in the poorest nations, a substantial enrollment in higher education is essential, particularly in science and engineering courses. For that to happen, ST practitioners should become sufficiently involved in education at all levels to help generate the human capital on which so much of development depends. Beyond communicating among themselves, with policymakers and their students, the ST community should regularly interact with the public. Many issues require public debate, and scientists and engineers should help inform this debate by engaging with the media. For its part, the media should consistently seek out the most reliable sources in order to present the issues accurately and effectively. 40 IAC Report | Science, technology, and society Recommendations With the help of the ST communities, each national and state government should encourage innovation in disseminating the results of publicly or privately funded research and in turning them into new products and services that address national or local needs. Such efforts could include: †¢ Consultative services, provided by national, state, or city research institutions, in areas such as agriculture, water and land management, housing, and health. †¢ Cooperative partnerships between local (state, city) entities and research institutions for sharing up-to-date information of local relevance. †¢ Empowerment, for periods of time, of social entrepreneurs for supplying products and services significantly below market prices to people in need. †¢ ‘Information kiosks,’ either publicly funded or for-profit, to help distribute useful scientific information to the public. The information might consist of short publications prepared by scientific organizations, such as the recent ones being promoted by the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), or reliable news obtained from the Internet. Each nation’s media should assume major responsibility for educating the public in ST-related issues. A wide array of communications technologies – print, television, radio, cellular tele- phone, World Wide Web, the Internet, among others – should be utilized in disseminating to the public the results and public policy implications of publicly or privately funded research that addresses national or local needs. The ST community should seriously exercise its obligation to pay more attention to the media and participate more fully in public discussions and debates. In such interactions, practitioners should endeavor to explain technical issues in non-technical language. Regarding scientific or technical matters on which public-policy choices are to be made, the media should seek out the best ST sources for their articles and programs. In a similar spirit, reporters and editors should not artificially generate controversy by seeking out minority positions that appear to highlight the adversarial aspects of STrelated questions, particularly when the professional community has actually achieved broad consensus. Truly controversial questions should be presented to the public in terms of explaining the scientific and technological aspects of the dispute without bias or editorializing (except on clearly indicated opinion pages). IAC Report | Science, technology, and society 41