June 6, 2006

If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?

Over at ScienceBlogs they pose a new, science-related question to their roster of bloggers every week, hoping to elicit some thought-provoking responses. A few weeks ago (I know, I'm slow sometimes) the question was, "If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?" They've collected the responses, carnival style, here.

Obviously, a few of the responses revolved around evolution, but quite a few other things were mentioned as well, such as the centrality of math to the scientific enterprise. Me, I would add that I would like people to really understand how computers and computer networks operate. How they just do what their programmers tell them, that they are just as perfect and falliable (and with as much potential) as the humans who created them. Related to that, I think it would be nice if there was a greater recognition of how much the enterprise of science has become influenced (dominated) by computation methods. Also, that computer science is more than programming, that programming is more than just typing.

As for a corollary of the ScienceBlogs question, "If you could shake the public and make them understand one thing about being a librarian, what would it be?" That one's easy too. I don't sit around reading books all day. Any other things we would all want the public to know about librarianship?

Update: changed date of post to today, not when I created the post.

Also, please check out the latest Carnival of the Infosciences at Christina's.

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