Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society

Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2015-09-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309377951

Does the public trust science? Scientists? Scientific organizations? What roles do trust and the lack of trust play in public debates about how science can be used to address such societal concerns as childhood vaccination, cancer screening, and a warming planet? What could happen if social trust in science or scientists faded? These types of questions led the Roundtable on Public Interfaces of the Life Sciences of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a 2-day workshop on May 5-6, 2015 on public trust in science. This report explores empirical evidence on public opinion and attitudes toward life sciences as they relate to societal issues, whether and how contentious debate about select life science topics mediates trust, and the roles that scientists, business, media, community groups, and other stakeholders play in creating and maintaining public confidence in life sciences. Does the Public Trust Science? Trust and Confidence at the Interfaces of the Life Sciences and Society highlights research on the elements of trust and how to build, mend, or maintain trust; and examine best practices in the context of scientist engagement with lay audiences around social issues.

Gene Drives on the Horizon

Gene Drives on the Horizon
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2016-08-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309437873

Research on gene drive systems is rapidly advancing. Many proposed applications of gene drive research aim to solve environmental and public health challenges, including the reduction of poverty and the burden of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue, which disproportionately impact low and middle income countries. However, due to their intrinsic qualities of rapid spread and irreversibility, gene drive systems raise many questions with respect to their safety relative to public and environmental health. Because gene drive systems are designed to alter the environments we share in ways that will be hard to anticipate and impossible to completely roll back, questions about the ethics surrounding use of this research are complex and will require very careful exploration. Gene Drives on the Horizon outlines the state of knowledge relative to the science, ethics, public engagement, and risk assessment as they pertain to research directions of gene drive systems and governance of the research process. This report offers principles for responsible practices of gene drive research and related applications for use by investigators, their institutions, the research funders, and regulators.

Science Under Attack

Science Under Attack
Author: Ralph B. Alexander
Publisher: Algora Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-12-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1628943653

Evidence and logic are lacking in many areas of public debate today on hot-button issues ranging from dietary fat to vaccination. In Science Under Attack, Dr. Alexander shows how science is being abused, sidelined or ignored, making it difficult or impossible for the public to form a reasoned opinion about important issues. Readers will learn why science is becoming more corrupt, and also how it is being abused for political and economic gain, support of activism, or the propping up of religious beliefs. To illustrate how science is being ignored and abused, the author examines six different issues and the way they are currently discussed: evolution, dietary fat, climate change, vaccination, GMO crops and continental drift. In his research, he has gone back to the original source wherever possible rather than quoting second-hand sources, adding a degree of accuracy and nuance often missing. The controversial assertion that science does not support the conventional wisdom on climate change should be of particular interest. Alexander shows that the scientific evidence for a substantial human contribution to climate change is actually flimsy, and he demonstrates the fallacy of comparing the strong link between smoking and lung cancer to the much weaker connection between human activity and global warming.

The Science of Communicating Science

The Science of Communicating Science
Author: Craig Cormick
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2019-11-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1486309836

Are you wishing you knew how to better communicate science, without having to read several hundred academic papers and books on the topic? Luckily Dr Craig Cormick has done this for you! This highly readable and entertaining book distils best practice research on science communication into accessible chapters, supported by case studies and examples. With practical advice on everything from messages and metaphors to metrics and ethics, you will learn what the public think about science and why, and how to shape scientific research into a story that will influence beliefs, behaviours and policies.

Science Literacy

Science Literacy
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2016-10-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0309447593

Science is a way of knowing about the world. At once a process, a product, and an institution, science enables people to both engage in the construction of new knowledge as well as use information to achieve desired ends. Access to scienceâ€"whether using knowledge or creating itâ€"necessitates some level of familiarity with the enterprise and practice of science: we refer to this as science literacy. Science literacy is desirable not only for individuals, but also for the health and well- being of communities and society. More than just basic knowledge of science facts, contemporary definitions of science literacy have expanded to include understandings of scientific processes and practices, familiarity with how science and scientists work, a capacity to weigh and evaluate the products of science, and an ability to engage in civic decisions about the value of science. Although science literacy has traditionally been seen as the responsibility of individuals, individuals are nested within communities that are nested within societiesâ€"and, as a result, individual science literacy is limited or enhanced by the circumstances of that nesting. Science Literacy studies the role of science literacy in public support of science. This report synthesizes the available research literature on science literacy, makes recommendations on the need to improve the understanding of science and scientific research in the United States, and considers the relationship between scientific literacy and support for and use of science and research.

The Crisis of Expertise

The Crisis of Expertise
Author: Gil Eyal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509538879

In recent political debates there has been a significant change in the valence of the word “experts” from a superlative to a near pejorative, typically accompanied by a recitation of experts’ many failures and misdeeds. In topics as varied as Brexit, climate change, and vaccinations there is a palpable mistrust of experts and a tendency to dismiss their advice. Are we witnessing, therefore, the “death of expertise,” or is the handwringing about an “assault on science” merely the hysterical reaction of threatened elites? In this new book, Gil Eyal argues that what needs to be explained is not a one-sided “mistrust of experts” but the two-headed pushmi-pullyu of unprecedented reliance on science and expertise, on the one hand, coupled with increased skepticism and dismissal of scientific findings and expert opinion, on the other. The current mistrust of experts is best understood as one more spiral in an on-going, recursive crisis of legitimacy. The “scientization of politics,” of which critics warned in the 1960s, has brought about a politicization of science, and the two processes reinforce one another in an unstable, crisis-prone mixture. This timely book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences and to anyone concerned about the political uses of, and attacks on, scientific knowledge and expertise.

Tomorrow's Table

Tomorrow's Table
Author: Pamela C. Ronald
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-03-12
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0199342091

"Tomorrow's Table" argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. Readers see the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals--a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses--and they learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. The book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices, and for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment. The first edition was published in hardcover in 2008 and in paperback in 2009. This second edition reflects the many and varied changes the fields of farming and genetic engineering have seen since 2009. It includes a new preface and three new chapters-one on politics and food-related protests such as the Marin county anti-vaccine movement and the subsequent outbreak of whooping cough, one on farming and food security, and one containing various recipes. Existing chapters on the tools of genetic engineering, organic vs. conventional foods, the tools of organic agriculture, and food labeling and legislature have all been updated.

Handbook of Digital Public History

Handbook of Digital Public History
Author: Serge Noiret
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 562
Release: 2022-04-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 3110430290

This handbook provides a systematic overview of the present state of international research in digital public history. Individual studies by internationally renowned public historians, digital humanists, and digital historians elucidate central issues in the field and present a critical account of the major public history accomplishments, research activities, and practices with the public and of their digital context. The handbook applies an international and comparative approach, looks at the historical development of the field, focuses on technical background and the use of specific digital media and tools. Furthermore, the handbook analyzes connections with local communities and different publics worldwide when engaging in digital activities with the past, indicating directions for future research, and teaching activities.

Implementing Biomedical Innovations into Health, Education, and Practice

Implementing Biomedical Innovations into Health, Education, and Practice
Author: James O. Woolliscroft
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2019-10-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128216042

Our increased understanding of health and disease coupled with major technologic advances has resulted in rapid and significant changes in the practice of medicine. How we prepare physicians for clinical practice 20, 30, or 40 years from now is of paramount importance to medical educators, to the future professionals, and to society at large. Implementing Biomedical Innovations into Health, Education, and Practice delves into this important question, discussing the effects of precision medicine, bioinformatics, biologic and environmental forces, and societal shifts on the physician's approach to diagnosis and therapy. The author interviewed world-renowned physicians, medical educators, healthcare leaders, and research professionals—their insights and quotes are woven throughout the narrative. Professionally illustrated, this relevant resource is a must-have for all medical professionals who incorporate technology and biomedical innovations in their research and clinical practice. It encourages thoughtful analysis on adapting and developing the foundational knowledge, skills, and aptitudes of future physicians and other healthcare professionals, and it belongs in your library. "Having completed deanship at one of America's leading medical schools, Jim Woolliscroft produces an insightful, contemplative projection of the likely skill and behavioral needs of the physician workforce for the mid-21st century...The result is a playbook for physician training that responds effectively to the daunting challenges faced in the coming transformation of the role of physicians in protecting the health of our nation. James L. Madara, MD, CEO, American Medical Association "Dr. Woolliscroft's provocative new book will become must reading for all who are serious about educating the next generation of physicians and health care leaders. Leveraging his own experience as a consummate educator and interviews with numerous thought leaders, he identifies the uncertainties, challenges and disruptions to the practice of medicine in the decades ahead. The implications and imperatives for the coming generations of physicians are compelling and of critical importance for care givers, policy makers, and most pointedly educators in the U.S. and around the world. Gary S. Kaplan MD, Chairman and CEO, Virginia Mason Health System "This ambitious masterpiece, by one of the leading medical educators of our time, fully captures the ongoing changes and disruptions in medicine today, and how they will influence the care of patients and the training of young physicians in the future. Eric Topol, MD, Executive Vice President, Scripps Research, Author of Deep Medicine - Discusses likely technologic disruptors: sensors, AI, machine learning, and robotics - Highlights microbiota, genetics, molecular biology, gene therapy, and regenerative and precision medicine as likely disruptors - Presents an intriguing set of scenarios depicting the life of future physicians