Jack Stilgoe
Senior Researcher
Jack Stilgoe works on science and technology projects and specialises in issues of science, society and public engagement.
- The expert patience programme When you have a hammer of a pamphlet, every story looks like a nail. On Friday, we launched The Received Wisdom - Opening up expert advice. In the papers, Richard Doll's (expert par excellence) reputation was taking a battering, vCJD was back in contaminated blood and the expert report of the TeGenero inquiry was described as a whitewash. At the same time, the mobile phones health scare was sinking its nails into Wi-Fi as it slowly died. continue reading on 12th December 2006 in Experts
- NICE drugs, if you can get them Lead story on the breakfast news this morning was the battle between Alzheimer's patients and NICE, the body set up to "rationalise" the provision of medicines. We talked about this case a year ago, when the guidance was being reviewed for the first time, in The Public Value of Science.We were particularly interested in the involvement of the upstreamly-engaged Alzheimer's Society in the debate, via their QRD network. But the example is perhaps more relevant to our forthcoming... continue reading on 11th October 2006 in Experts
- A play ethic If you're a fan of old left bitching, but too young to remember it, Tom Stoppard's new play is worth going to. Through arguments inside and around communist Czechoslovakia, the two main characters explore ideas that are still relevant now that history has ended. Max, the marxist philosopher, reminds the young dissident that there are two sorts of liberty - "Get off my back" and "Give me a break." Isaiah Berlin would have appreciated that.[Apologies to Pat Kane for the title] continue reading on 29th September 2006
- Has science won the day? James was on the Today programme this morning talking with Bob May about science and society. GM looks like it is coming back to British shores. So how can we manage it better this time around? Listen again. The discussion covered upon many of the things described in See-Through Science, but also touched upon the difficult question of how society relates to its experts. continue reading on 20th September 2006
- Tory Spelling - the rebirth and rebirth of the maglev Ah, Maglev. It sounds like a Stalinist spelling mistake. But it's just become one of George Osbourne's new policies. The Maglev train has a permanent reserved slot on the Tomorrow's World schedule. It's clean, it's flash, it's fast, it's a bit magic, it's very seventies. And it's just been defrosted by the shadow chancellor. He wants it to solve climate change while taking us to Glasgow and back in less time than it takes to finish a Campari and soda. It's a nice example of politicians talking... continue reading on 31st August 2006 Comments (2)
- Harare 2 - Everyone's an economist "Everyone's an economist," Lawrence tells me as we drive from Harare airport. We overtake an overcrowded minibus, full of people trying to make the most of what petrol can be found. On the back of the bus, a banner says "Opportunity Cost!" On the front, it says "Demand Elasticity!" If "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them" (A N Whitehead), then Zimbabwe's economy needs a... continue reading on 26th July 2006 in The Nanodialogues
- Harare 1 - Snakes in a Well The third nanodialogue has just wrapped up. In Harare, we've spent the last two weeks with mushroom-farmers, brick-makers and water scientists, imagining the role that nanotechnology might play in their lives. The gulf between Western technoscience and applications for poor communities is far wider than I'd imagined. Ask people from Epworth - a Harare suburb currently recovering from Mugabe's Operation Murambatsvina - what they want from new technologies and they talk about the rope and washer.. continue reading on 24th July 2006 in The Nanodialogues
- Scientists at Large A long awaited survey from the Royal Society. It reveals the barriers that scientists feel stop them from getting out of their labs, into the open, talking and listening to members of the public. The major barrier, it seems, is the simple day-to-day pressure of professional research. We identified a similar thing last year in The Public Value of Science, and linked it to debates about public engagement as they fit into the culture of science. My worry in all of this is that the survey was... continue reading on 29th June 2006 in The Nanodialogues
- Saturday Science Swap Shop This Saturday, we'll be hosting a discussion session at the Compass Conference. The topic is science, technology and everyday democracy, and we're really lucky to have Steven Rose (neuroscientist and Moral Maze panellist) and Ben Goldacre (the Guardian's Dr Bad Science) as guest speakers. As an experiment in deliberative democracy, I thought I would expand the debate to include the blog massive. Comment or email your questions about science and politics and we will air them at the conference.... continue reading on 13th June 2006
- Who should fund science? A lapse in concentration took my eye to the Times on Monday. In the "Science Notebook," Terence Kealey keenly argued that there is no need for the state to fund science. The economy would chug along nicely with just corporate science. IBM would still produce computers and Pfizer would still produce drugs. Science policy fans will remember a version of this argument, before it was refrozen, in the pages of New Scientist ten years ago. Keith Pavitt from the Science Policy Research Unit presented... continue reading on 7th June 2006