Originally published October 31, 2009 at 6:28 p.m., updated October 31, 2009 at 6:26 p.m.
Just a few weeks ago, the greatest scientists from around the world were honored with Nobel Prizes. Top among these were many Americans whose brilliant minds have been devoted to arduous research for decades.
Their work has been transformed into a slew of new advancements in medicine and technology, forever changing the landscape of human accomplishment and providing the next generation of scientists with an ever-rising foundation of knowledge. However, this event in commemorating the collective achievement of our entire civilization was met with indifference and ignorance by the American public.
The Americans’ ennui towards the scientific Nobel Prizes is ironic. The three scientists sharing the Nobel Prize in medicine are Americans. Two of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in physics are Americans, and so is one of the three honored with the Nobel Prize in chemistry. If the Nobel Prizes were the Olympics, these scientists would be on the cover of Newsweek with their awards around their necks. But the only press coverage of these awards was of Obama’s win of the Nobel Peace Prize. America just seems to not care about science.
Think of some famous scientists you know. You may be able to name a few, such as Einstien, Newton or Galileo. But if I were to ask you to name a famous living scientist, what would you say? The only scientists we know are from our public education; they are simple relics of long-past eras when scientific advancement was the crowning apex of human achievement.
Today in popular culture, scientists are portrayed as either socially irrelevant or morally antagonistic. A scientist is either the bumbling, inept man who is a genius in a lab but a dolt in a bar, or the arrogant, heartless villain who disregards ethics in favor of science. Our generation has no scientific heroes and only poor scientific stereotypes.
This disregard for the significance of science has had devastating effects nationally. There is a growing shortage of certified science and math teachers in public schools. Scientific illiteracy is rampant, as shown by a 2008 survey by the California Academy of Sciences. This study showed that 41 percent of people surveyed thought humans and dinosaurs coexisted in prehistoric time and 53 percent did not know how long it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun (for the half of you reading that don’t know, it’s one year).
But it is all too easy to blame the media and the public. The issue of the scientific neutering of America is much more complicated. The nature of scientific progress itself is partially responsible. Our recent discoveries have leapfrogged the general scientific knowledge easily accessible to the public. We have achieved so much in understanding the universe, atoms and our own biology that the most important research has become increasingly specialized and esoteric. How can we expect the average American to understand the enormous impact of a green fluorescent protein?
The value of science needs to penetrate beyond research and medicine. Science has a tremendous value to influence the everyday lives of everyone. The food you eat, the car you drive, the computer you use and the medicine you take are all products of a man or woman working to improve your quality of life. We need to celebrate our modern-day scientific heroes who earned their Nobel Prizes and work to inspire a new generation of scientists.
— Folmsbee is a Topeka senior in neurobiology.
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