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Does Science Matter?
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Lesley Judd : In the modern technological age,does greater
scientific knowledge increase economic well-being? Like many questions in
the study of economics,no two experts agree,in this case on what is science,and
what is technology.Most experts would normally describe science when it's
applied in practical circumstances,like the infamous bouncing bomb,as
technology.Science,when it's applied has all sorts of uses,while some of
them are military,most are a lot more constructive.
[Would we have won the war without Barnes Wallis,maybe,maybe not,but what
would we do if if had NO capacity to produce such inventions? The Spitfire
and Hurricane are still held in esteem by pilots today. It's indicative then
that Frank Whittle had to take his pioneering jet engine to the US to get
funding,and that is one reason why the US are leading aircraft manufacturers
-LB]
Girl : (Karaoke Pat Benatar "Hit me with your best shot") Well,you're
a real tough cookie,with long history,of breaking little hearts,like the
one in me,that's okay,let's see how you do it,put up your dukes,let's get
down to it.Hit me with your best shot,why don't you hit me....
Lesley Judd : For the elite breed of innovators,technology must always
be important,but how much science will the public need in the leisure-based
economies of the future?
Bryan Chapman : What is the future for work in the 21st century? Obviously
there is going to be an increase in leisure and there's going to be less
work.What will we do with that leisure? I think one of the major problems
we have in schools is to look ahead at what the employment patterns will
be,and guessing at that,rather than looking back at what they were in the
past.Now if you look behind me at the moment,there are people here sitting
on a production line putting together highly complex electronic devices,without
I would guess,any significant knowledge of the electronics they're using.In
other words they don't actually need the science to do the job.
[That's not quite true,if you don't understand thinks like static discharge,and
how sensitive electronic components are to it,then as an employee you may
destroy thousands of pounds worth of goods merely by handling it wrongly.This
was a problem for ICL whilst I worked there.They had to supply educational
materials to those people who were not scientifically trained in order to
make sure this didn't happen. But there was motive for them to employ untrained
people - they cost less to employ and do what they're told,and are uncritical
of policies.You wouldn't let a blind man drive a car,and yet scientifically
untrained people make electronic goods,and sell them (see
"Tales of the Expected") -LB]
Girl : (nervously) The CD goes round in't machines,so that you can
play CDs.
Interviewer : Have you learned any science.
Girl : Ay?
Interviewer : Have you learned any science?
Girl : Science,no.
Interviewer : Do you need to know science to do this job?
Girl : No,just common sense really.
[The amount of ignorance of the internal workings of a computer and electronics
at ICL was absolutely gob smacking,perhaps that's why the factory I used
to work at,is now under new management and not owned by ICL any longer. The
more knowledgeable your employees, the better equipped they are to do the
job.The Japanese recognise this,which presumably is why they are doing so
well. ICL ran a partnership with Fujitsu,and I am quite sure that had the
engineers of Fujitsu interviewed ICL's floor workers they would never have
consented to the partnership. ICL also tried to run an educational class
after pleas from some of us that we weren't being told about the machines
we were working on. It turned out that the person chosen to give the classes
knew less basic electronics than those of us with college backgrounds.That
is the attitude of British industrialists,and that is why Britain is failing.If
you don't invest in your workforce,your business fails. Having to explain
the whys and wherefores of every procedure to a worker because they are making
basic errors through ignorance is time consuming and costly.If they were
informed to start with,then you've circumvented the need for "on the job
training" - a phrase which means "pick it up as you go along from the Chinese
whispers and rumours of other ignorant employees".No one ever receives the
horse's mouth version of how to do the job properly,because specialised training
costs money.If people were educated to a higher standard in the first place,then
we'd have a better industrial base to work from. It works for the German's
who have engineering apprenticeships.It doesn't work here because the hierarchy's
apex is greedy and self indulgent and does not plough funds into training
employees.And why should it,that's the job of the education system,which
should be teaching people science -LB]
Lesley Judd : The workers in the workbench of the future may not need
scientific knowledge, but at the cutting edge of scientific research,the
bench scientists are worried about British scientific education.They've gone
so far as to launch their own pressure group to maintain scientific
spending.Professor Dennis Noble,a physiologist at Oxford leads a team doing
fundamental research into the cellular properties of the heart.Does he believe
we know enough about science.
[This kind of research work may not produce a drug or a machine,but the
understanding of how the cells create beating is priceless for developing
the right drug or machine that will help those with defective hearts. Pure
research is therefore absolutely necessary and cannot be viewed in material
terms -LB]
Dennis Noble : The evidence in the United Kingdom is that a diminishing
number of people as a fraction of those taking A levels are choosing to study
science,and that's a worrying development,because compared to say for example
France,Germany,Japan,some of our leading competitors in science and technology
and it's appliance in the economy,they have much larger fractions of their
youngsters studying science.So the short answer is no.
Intro | The Practical Case | The Economic Case | The Democratic Case | The Cultural Case