Re: [Phys-L] March for Science

[bernard cleyet <bernard@cleyet.org>]

Do Scientists Lose Credibility When They Become Political? 

> On 2017/Mar/04, at 09:16, John Denker via Phys-l <phys-l@mail.phys-l.org> wrote:
>
> On 03/04/2017 04:40 AM, Joseph Bellina wrote:
>
> > On Earth Day this year there will be national march for science in
> > Washington D.C and local marches throughout the country, indeed
> > throughout the world.   If you would like to join a local march, or
> > start one in your community please go to
> >
> > https://www.marchforscience.com <https://www.marchforscience.com/>
> >
> > and search for local marches.
>
>
> I reckon this is a very good idea.
>
>  FWIW, I heard a contrary argument along the following lines:
>  "Scientists are supposed to make scientific arguments and write
>  scholarly journal articles.  Scientists are not supposed to
>  march in the streets."


A new study suggests that, contrary to common fears, the answer is no.  

"'We have no illusions that this study will settle the debate about the proper role of scientists in public engagement,' says Kotcher. 'We see it as a first step.' He hopes that others will replicate the study under different conditions, and then run a meta-analysis to compare the various results.”


https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/when-scientists-become-advocates-do-they-lose-credibility/518157/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-022817


bc.