From:
malcolm McCallum <malcolm.mccal...@herpconbio.org>
Date:
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:11:47 -0600
At what point does the scientific community realize that the current
surge in patent medicines and nonsense medical devices are seriously
eroding the nation's confidence in science?
This is not directly related to ecology, but ecology is science and if
people misuse science to sell products that are medically irrelevant
it certainly must affect all science.
...
Does anyone else see that a deeper problem exists here? These
... but all have
a serious potential to erode the general public's view of the
scientific community.
I see an extended set of this problem in much of the material that
appears on so-called "factual" channels on TV service, at least here in US.
I watch (at least the first few minutes of) many programs on History
Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel (yes, I include
even this once respected organization in the source of the problem),
Science Channel, etc. I do this for two reasons: first, to find
potential teaching material and, second, to get a feel for what I might
use for "teachable moments" in undergraduate science courses.
I see a few really good presentations of science but I see much more
utter rubbish: pervasive over-simplification of virtually any
scientific topic, credulous programs on UFO-logy (or spirit-ology or
conspiracy-ology), mindless sensationalizing of natural disasters (or
venomous animals or exceptional natural phenomena), "decide for
yourself" presentation of non-theories--I could go on for hours.
It's hard enough trying to teach the Darwinian-evolutionary synthesis to
the fearful followers of preachers of the lesser deity. It can be even
harder to explain the ordinariness of volcanism and plate tectonics, the
exigency of habitat destruction and diversity loss, the not-so-simple
reality of amphibian decline.
Some days the stuff is so bad and so thick that it makes my hair hurt.
--
Ken Leonard, Ph.D. Candidate
The University of Georgia
Odum School of Ecology (Bradford Lab)
517 Biological Sciences Bldg.
Athens, GA 30602 US
To Learn is a human instinct. To teach is a humane duty.
kleon...@uga.edu, ken_leon...@earthlink.net
http://kleonard.myweb.uga.edu/
1+404.307.6425
