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Theme : science
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The Atlas of Ideas
We used to know where new ideas would come from: established universities and corporate research centres in highly developed countries. Think again.
from : mollywebb
16th January 2007
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Where forwards please?
The new ad from Honda stars a cross between Mr Soft and a stormtrooper with sciatica. The robot struts (limps) his stuff among his dusty predecessors in a museum, and that chap from Lake Wobegon tells us that Honda are about "Onwards, upwards - anyway but backwards. Tapping progress on the shoulder and saying 'More forwards please'."It's a nice turn of phrase, but it rings my alarm bells. It reminds us how easy it is to fall into the trap of seeing science-in-society in a linear way....
from : jackstilgoe
4th January 2007
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Way upstream
Next week, I will be a mentor at the EPSRC's 'Ideas Factory' on Software Control of Matter. This takes me way upstream and puts me among a diverse group of scientists, who are coming together to consider how to approach an esoteric problem with potentially massive implications - building stuff nano-bit by nano-bit. The EPSRC, who distribute the engineering and physics part of the UK's science budget, have set aside money to fund the proposals that are produced. For the last year, we at...
from : jackstilgoe
3rd January 2007
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The Atlas of Ideas Final Conference
Join us for The Atlas of Ideas conference, where policymakers, business leaders, scientists and opinion formers from across Asia, Europe and the US will gather to debate the new geography of science.
from : mollywebb
3rd January 2007
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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.
from : jackstilgoe
12th December 2006
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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
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Are you feeling ‘lit by the brilliant light of science’?
The PM today delivered a big speech on science in Oxford, his first substantial contribution on this theme since 2002. The speech paints a detailed picture of the scientific state we're in, and has some good points to make about international collaboration, which are relevant to our Atlas project. The latter part of the speech, where he attacks the 'anti-science brigade', is the least convincing. In part, he seems to be arguing for a new approach to opening up decision-making and supporting...
from : mollywebb
3rd November 2006
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The new geography of science
from : mollywebb
3rd November 2006
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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
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Public 'needs to drive science'
Public 'needs to drive science'
from : mollywebb
11th September 2006
