Jack Stilgoe
Senior Researcher
Jack Stilgoe works on science and technology projects and specialises in issues of science, society and public engagement.
"science"
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- Imagining people and the public imagination Madeleine Bunting has a very thoughtful piece in the Guardian today, drawing on our imminent Better Humans? collection. To many people, her imagination of future humans might seem far-fetched - more Gattaca than Grauniad. But this only demonstrates the poverty of debate about technologies that should force us to ask, in public, some very, very big questions. In the US, there's a bunch of people shouting quite loudly about the radical 'benefits' of new technologies for humanity. They do this... from : jackstilgoe 30th January 2006
- Knowing and Doing I'm dead excited about a new project we've just begun on experts and the public. The good folk of Defra have asked Demos and Liverpool University to consider how lay people can play a part in expert scientific advice.Many moons ago, when memories of BSE, GM, mobile phones and MMR were still fresh, I looked at this kind of thing as an academic. Social scientists have been saying for years that we need to think about expert advice differently. Thankfully, our project is being led by Alan Irwin... from : jackstilgoe 24th March 2006
- Drug Lords Outside the House of Lords, I was chatting to a policeman. He told me that a lot of people had been coming to watch the debate. He told me that he was particularly interested in the issue, as his son - he was very proud of his son - had behavioural difficulties. They had offered Ritalin, but he and his wife had refused. Son was now doing his A-levels, had just got his GCSEs with all As and Bs. All it had taken was early understanding of the problem and the help of some good teachers. Drugs not... from : jackstilgoe 21st April 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... from : jackstilgoe 7th June 2006
- 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.... from : jackstilgoe 13th June 2006
- 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... from : jackstilgoe 12th July 2006
- 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.. from : jackstilgoe 24th July 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... from : jackstilgoe 31st August 2006
- 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... from : jackstilgoe 11th October 2006
- The Received Wisdom The modern world needs experts. They are everywhere. In government, we are told that they are a resource – ‘on tap, not on top.’ But experience over the last 20 years, from BSE to MMR and beyond, has punctured the old, ‘speaking truth to power,’ model of expertise. The policy response to BSE has been to open up. But are we making the most of openness? from : markfuller 8th December 2006