British Science Association - Perception of Science in The UK

Perception of Science in The UK

The Association's main aim is to improve the perception of science and scientists in the UK. Membership is open to all.

Yorkshireman Prof Sir George Porter, on becoming President in September 1985, was scathing against so-called 'soft sciences' such as psychology, and even economics (both part of the Association). He claimed that academics in these areas were far too eager to try to put unsubstantiated assertions into practice on the public and that undergraduates were often taught unsubstantiated assertions, as if they had been established by rigorous scientific method. He claimed this was damaging the public perception of science.

The following September he said that the general level of scientific understanding in Britain was lamentably low, with many senior politicians, religious leaders and controllers of the media scientifically uneducated. He said of Britain's education system that although it provides the finest education anywhere for the young man or woman who wants to be an academic scientist, it leaves the majority ignorant of the scientific world where they will live and work and it was the duty of scientists to drag kicking and screaming into the twenty first century those who have no taste for the subject. On science education in schools he said of all the many crises in education and science, perhaps the most serious is the disappearing species of the good teacher of physics, mathematics and to a lesser extent the other sciences and that if it is allowed to go much further, there will be no recovery for generations, comparing it to China's Cultural Revolution which he said produced a lost generation.

Sir Kenneth Durham, former Director of Research at Unilever, on becoming President in August 1987 followed on from Sir George Porter saying that science teachers needed extra pay to overcome the scarcity of mathematics and physics teachers in secondary schools, and that unless we deal with this as matter of urgency, the outlook for our manufacturing future is bleak. He regretted that headmasters and careers masters had for many years followed 'the cult of Oxbridge' because it carried more prestige to read Classics at Oxbridge and go into the Civil Service or banking, than to read engineering at, say, Salford, and go into manufacturing industry. He said that reporting of sciences gave good coverage to medical science, but that nevertheless, editors ought to be sensitive to developments in areas such as solid state physics, astro-physics, colloid science, molecular biology, transmission of stimuli along nerve fibres, and so on, and that newspaper editors were in danger of waiting for disasters before the scientific factors involved in the incidence were explained.

In September 2001 Sir William Stewart, as outgoing president, warned that universities faced 'dumbing down' and that we can deliver social inclusiveness, and the best universities, but not both from a limited amount of money. We run the risk of doing neither well. Universities are underfunded, and must not be seen simply as a substitute for National Service to keep youngsters off the dole queue. He also said scientists have to be careful and consider the full implications of what they are seeking to achieve. The problem with some clever people is that they find cleverer ways of being stupid.

In September 2003 Sir Peter Williams, the outgoing president, said that the world was facing a shortage of scientists because too many young people dropped the subject at an early age.