Did you attend the march for science?

[Altamira]

@DennisS,
You might be right about the effectiveness of Nye, Tyson, and NOVA, but that still does not make your original assertion correct, or historically accurate. Who was supposed to get their awareness of science raised by this march? Perhaps our less than enlightened politicians and less well educated citizens. If people do not march and make noise about what is being foisted on our environment by moneyed interests, they are never going to heard over the sound of money dropping into the pockets of politicians.

 

[MichaelMc]

I marched, as a scientist in training, a.k.a. PhD student, at Berkeley. My impression of the crowd was it was full of acting scientists, with kids, and those in training, Berkeley science students, grad and undergrad. Some speakers did speak from their positions as historically or currently disadvantaged groups whether from race, gender, or religion. That spread the focus out a bit from the science.

My take of the march was that it was as a reaction to policy based on attractively presented ’facts’ or careful pruning to a preferred sub set of actual facts. And killing funding in areas were facts could become inconvenient.

Yes, society still manages to benefit from science based advances. It seemed as if some in power preferred that the search for knowledge not be inconvenient to business.

The scientists work at the peer review issues fairly well. Chanting on that would seem pointless, that is not the main worry. The main worry is national decisions affected by science that ignore science as an open and publicly known factor in the decision.

My area of computer science is very well funded by industry, so my concern for science is not motivated by my funding or future prospects, but rather against politics that treats some facts as inconvenient. And as a member of the community whose job it is to get a better understanding of facts so society can benefit.