Science

Not a topic often covered on this blog. I am ashamed to say that I am in that long tradition of people of an Arts (strictly speaking, Social Science) background that know next to nothing about Science but berate Scientists who know next to nothing about Arts (keyword: CP Snow). Still, I do better than a former housemate of mine who, despite having Physics O-Level, went into a panic when she saw steam coming off the clothes she had left to dry on the radiator.

The Guardian has written an article for the likes of me: Life lessons: What is the one thing everyone should learn about science?

Some of them I know already, being a Social Scientist

I would teach the world that science is not about truth, but is about trying to get closer to the truth. This is important because, too often, people look to scientists as having the "truth". What we have is wrapped in uncertainties, caveats and simplifications.

I would teach the world that fundamental scientific research is neutral, but the dividing line between good and evil in the eventual use of the results of research is often thin and tenuous.

I would like it to be universally known that whatever we eat, it is broken down into basic building blocks of food in the gut, before it can be absorbed into the blood - ooh that's the bit of Science I do know, and I love messing with the heads of Sciencey people by talk about amino acids (22 and 12...) and fat soluble vitamins and so on. It drives them nuts because they don't have a clue about nutrition and don't like me, a mere Social Scientist, blinding them, well, with Science...

Everyone should know about plate tectonics. Oh yes, definitely. The very most interesting bit of Geography ever studied at school - maybe because it was taught by the interesting history teacher, not the boring-unable-to-teach Geography teacher, and I tried to explain it to Jimmy after Christmas, then as we drove through the Great African Rift Valley in Israel, which isn't Africa, our tour guide was talking about it. And plate tectonics are fascinating

I would like to teach the world about climate change - it amazes me that people say "All this global warming is bollocks, haven't you noticed it's getting colder," and I want to say it's not Global Warming, it's Climate Change, and don't you know about polar ice caps melting, and the effect that has on the temperatures in the oceans. And there were other people that blamed the Boxing Day Tsunami on 'Global Warning'

I would nominate the basic formula for photosynthesis: CO2 + H2O + sunlight/chlorophyll —> O2 + C6H12O6.

For others, I am startled -

Frighteningly, most people do not understand Darwin's great insight. What people miss is the sheer inevitability of the creative process. Once you see it —copy, vary, select; copy, vary, select —you see that design by natural selection simply has to happen...if everyone understood evolution, then the tyranny of religious memes would be weakened, and we little humans might find a better way to live in this pointless universe.

I mean, I'm no Scientist, but I think I instinctively or intuitively grasp this, at least at a basic level.

I also wish this was more commonly known

I would teach the world the importance of staying actively intellectually engaged throughout our lives, especially as we become elderly.

To me, it seems self-evident.

Some I disagree with

Without doubt, the most important single scientific discovery ever made was the connection between electricity and magnetism.

What, more important than the Steam Engine that entirely revolutionised society? But then, I'm a Social Scientist. At the end of 1999, the BBC did a poll of various 'Best of the Millennium'. I didn't respond to many of them, feeling that they were conflating 'most popular' with 'greatest' (obviously, I voted Robbie Williams Best Musician of the Millennium...) but one I did respond to was the Greatest Invention.

It was so obvious to me that it had to be the Steam Engine. But would you believe the computer came top with over half the votes? I mean, come on. The computer, compared to the Steam Engine? Give me a break. Mind you I guess for too many spotty geeks, Steam Engine = Train, when they don't even know they mean Locomotive, which hauls the train of rolling stock.

But my top tip goes to

Dr Robert Maynard Senior medical officer at the UK Department of Health

The principle of refutation put forward by the philosopher Karl Popper, in his books The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Conjectures and Refutations, is my choice. Popper argued that scientific knowledge advanced most reliably by the development and refutation of hypotheses — much more reliably than by the accretion of evidence in support of theories.

I am so glad I found this one, because I was thinking that I know stuff like I have mentioned above, but I think I know it on a accumulation-of-facts level, not an understanding level. As a Social Scientist, and a politician, the single most important thing ever taught to me was by my A Level Maths teacher who started every new topic by making us prove it from First Principles. He then said, you don't need to know this for the A Level syllabus, but you do need to know it. They never bothered with that at University Maths for non-Mathematicians. But it is vital for the single most important study, subject on earth - epistemology.