*This is an excerpt of an article I'm writing for Developer Economics about the importance of free information & focus on science in schools.
I live in a city where there's very few opportunities to meet and learn from world-class and influential figures in the scientific community. Australia has a very embarrassing space agency, and for years we didn't even have that - which is why so many of our brightest and best go overseas for opportunities. Whenever I hear about an influential scientist who I can learn from visiting Perth, I immediately have tickets to that presentation or lecture. When it comes to my love of learning, I am a perfectionist and must have access to the best sources of information.
This is why I was so excited to be able to attend a lecture by the Director General of the European Space Agency, Johann-Dietrich Wörner, when I was in high school. Due to attending his lecture, I became passionate about the advancement of aerospace as an industry in Australia. I asked questions about space policy and about opportunities for Australians. It was made very clear that people from all countries SHOULD, by right, have opportunities to contribute and even more importantly, that scientific information should be shared freely, to all people.
My eyes were opened to the fact that so many people are genuinely interested in science and space travel, but it's presented as a media novelty to most of us. Astronauts get their 15 minutes of fame and Nobel-prize winning scientists will make a special speech, but none of us see the years of training, R&D and passion that goes into each media story about the Curiosity Rover or the fight against cancer. As a consequence, information that should be shared freely is locked behind a paywall, and the opportunity to really and truly learn and contribute is left to the elite few who were given the sort of opportunities many can only dream of. This is why the anti-science movement has started - because the masses not only do not understand the science, they are actively being forced to not understand.
When I went to this lecture, I became aware of the basic right for every country to have a place in space. I decided that I wanted to be part of the process to democratise science and provide equal opportunities for everyone. Because the only way for extraterrestrial life to be discovered, or for more effective cancer treatment to be utilised, is for science to be given to the masses. Who knows, if my dream comes true it may happen in Australia.
Combatting misinformation
The internet was envisioned as a place where knowledge could be shared freely and openly. Instead, large parts of it have become havens for hate speech, misinformation and destruction.
In 2023, I'll be providing my second Astrophysics course (my first one finished back in September 2022) and one of my goals is to track down and destroy as many misinformation sources on the internet as possible. One of the things I'll be doing in each weekly talk is answering questions about specific issues (like vaccine hesitancy) and using science and logic to debunk the lies.
“If you’re not allowed to question it, it’s not science, it’s propaganda”
This is why scientific journals are full, cover to cover, with people questioning absolutely everything—mostly other scientists.
This is why, whenever a scientist says something, a dozen other scientists pounce on them, eager to find any fault or flaw, no matter how insignificant it might seem.
The thing so many people fail to understand is this:
The only way to question science is to do better science.
You don’t “question science” by making a YouTube video claiming that the Earth is flat, or that vaccines don’t work. You question science by carefully collecting and analysing data, and present the conclusions by submitting it to scientists for criticism. That’s how all scientists do their science.
Nothing in science is published, much less accepted, until a whole flock of scientists have failed to find any flaw in it.
So when Dr. Fauci says something on TV, there’s not much point in questioning it anymore. It comes pre-questioned by hundreds or thousands of people who have studied the issue for decades, and whose entire careers were based on finding faults with it.
And some tings, like gravity, quantum mechanics, relativity, or evolution, comes pre-questioned by quite literally millions of people, who have all repeated all the experiments involved and have very explicitly been encouraged to find a better explanation.
That “better explanation” often involves a return ticket to Stockholm, a gold medal and a million dollars, so it’s not like people don’t try.
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