Every time I walk past these posters outside BIS a bit of me dies. On Sunday afternoon someone forwarded me a story from the Guardian saying top UK environmental scientists were being told to use their skills to help “de-risk” oil firms drilling in polar regions. I was a bit shocked. And sceptical. Reading a … Continue reading »
Filed under policy …
Crowd-funding science?
I had a couple of visits to Broadcasting House this week, talking about the ethics of crowd-funding science on the World Service and Radio 4. Both pieces were based on a discussion of the Petridish website, but there’s scope for scientific work via Kickstarter too, and Cancer Research UK have a special frundraising stream called … Continue reading »
Oh, Canada. Oh, Rio.
Rio 1992, by Alice Bell aged 11. No idea why I still have this, somehow got filed with my swimming certificates. I have a post on Comment is Free arguing this week’s protests by scientists in Canada are not just a local issue, but of global concern. Modern science is a global enterprise: people from … Continue reading »
Science and growth
Last week I co-organised a debate on science and growth, one of a regular* “Science Question Time” seminars. The idea that science might equal growth is something which has dominated UK science policy discourse for several years (e.g. David Willetts’ first speech as Science Minister). But can the government pick winners, and how can we ensure public coffers … Continue reading »
Green science policy
Posters currently outside BIS offices, London One result of the recent wave of anti-GMO protests seems to be an outpouring of debate over whether the green movement is “anti-science”. The latest to cross my laptop screen was a blogpost from Adam Ramsey, arguing the Green Party are actually more pro-science than their competitors; they just need … Continue reading »
Opening up science funding
Keep Science Public – from Science is Vital Rally, Autumn 2010 Adam Smith (no, not that one, or that one, or that one, the science writer one) has a new series of posts for the Guardian on science policy starting today. His first post raises several questions, including who should set the goals for science? … Continue reading »
Public engagement with (climate) security?
Last month, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, gave a speech about “climate security” (full text on DECC site) Climate change is about increased risk: of extreme events, of natural disasters, of changes in weather patterns. As our understanding of the climate grows, so does our understanding of what those risks … Continue reading »
Identifying arguments in climate science
George Bush used to say, in his generous way, that the science [of climate change] is uncertain. But it’s an almost content free statement because science is about uncertainty. Lord Oxburgh FRS, Imperial College, 30th January 2012. That quote comes from a debate on climate science in the mass media we held at Imperial last week, part of the pilot … Continue reading »
In praise of POST
If you are even the slightest bit interested in science and technology policy, you really should know about the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (or POST as it’s more commonly known). POST is the UK Parliament’s in-house office for analysis of science policy issues. Obviously it could do a lot more than it does and … Continue reading »
For fracks sake
“Who even invented that word fracking anyway? I bet it was an environmentalist.” Anthony Giddens, 17th January 2012 Anthony Giddens doesn’t seem to like the word fracking. At a debate on shale gas at the Policy Network earlier this week he wrapped his mouth around it as if the very sound produced a bad smell right there … Continue reading »
