Physicists should work harder to improve the
public awareness of science and
the
training of science teachers.
These are two of the
conclusions of a report of a workshop held in preparation for the
World Conference on Science in Budapest in June.
The report also argues that the
United Nations should set up an impartial international body to adjudicate on scientific questions such as genetically modified crops and
cold fusion,
and
that the
amount that a country spends on research should be directly linked to its gross domestic product.
Physicists should also present a united front,
says the
report,
or they will be vulnerable to 'fractional fighting'.
The World Conference on Science is being organized by the
United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and
the
International Council of Science (ICSU).
The three-day workshop was held in Debreccen in Hungary last month and
involved physicists from both eastern and
western Europe.
Delegates were concerned about a number of ‘serious problems’ that physics faces both with its relationship with the
general public,
and
as a discipline.
The workshop pointed out,
for example,
that the
public often cites Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as a reason for claiming that everything is uncertain.
On a brighter note,
the report points out that politicians are starting to realise how science can smooth and help diplomacy,
and that the public are buying more popular-science books. ‘Our defence of physics,
as well as science in general,
must find ways of exploiting these hopeful points,
’ says the report.
![[IOP]](http://images.iop.org/cws/icons/themes/phw/colophon-small.png){kind=icon}
