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Does Science Matter?
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Lesley Judd : So the desire to spread scientific knowledge is put
forward for all sorts of reasons, some arguably spurious. The most convincing
is all too often ignored - it's fun.
Robin Millar : I think one of the things that's very interesting about
the cultural argument is that in a number of occasions when I've done workshops
with teachers where I've provided them with a list of well-known bits of
the current science curriculum and asked them whether they thought these
pieces of knowledge were useful,what emerges if people ask the question hard
is that most of the things that we'd really quite like to teach children,the
strongest justification is cultural,it's not democratic,and it's not practical.
Lesley Judd : In Bristol,Richard Gregory has taken up the cudgel of
spreading scientific knowledge directly to the next generation,by setting
up what he's called "The Exploratory". Scientific literacy may not help daily
lives,it may not help the economy,it may not help us as voters, [But I think
it helps all of the above -LB] but like Shakespeare
or the Mona Lisa it's a tremendous cultural achievement that we can all
enjoy for it's own sake.
(marble rolls and a bell sounds followed by a child's vocal appreciation
of his own achievement)
Richard Gregory : Well what these people have learned is really quite
a lot.First of all they've learned that to make it work you have to make
little adjustments,one at a time on each mirror, and at first they were bumbling
around and changing everything and didn't get anywhere,you have to home in
on the answer,then they can compare what happens with a ball bearing with
what happens to light,and the answer is the same when the angle is almost
a right-angle. When it's an oblique angle (Richard is drowned out by children
and marbles) then it's just that the ball starts to spin.So you learn about
perfection with light and the imperfection of ordinary objects. There's a
lot going behind this game.It's also a lot of fun as I think you can see.It's
self motivating,that's what's so interesting about "The Exploratory".They
don't just mess around,they really seem to enjoy it as a game and get a lot
out of it. I think the main argument for the understanding of science is
that one learns to play and to learn from mistakes,proved,and the playing
is very essential for it,and this it seems to me is a lifetime adventure,starting
from playing around to one's mind being really switched on,and this,I think
what life is all about.
Tales of the Expected - Codes
[Some public definitions of "digital"]
Man : Digital - no loss in quality as you transfer,analogue - loss
of quality as you transfer. [Check the Roland course
on sampling and you'll see this is not true -LB]
Man : Metal particles,you know the thing on your analogue codes...
Man : You know it's not information which people really care about.
Electronics salesman : Everything's going to be digitalised via one
signal coming through a digital signal,which is all done like a superhighway
sort of multimedia package. [Full of buzzwords but utter BS.A case in point
that people need to understand science.Would you like to be sold equipment
by this man,who hasn't a clue what he's talking about? -LB]
Host : All "digital " means is that information is turned into
numbers.
Man : The computer can only understand a one or a zero,the closer
you zoom into the picture,the more you can see the dots that make up the
structure.We can actually save that and compress the image,by describing
it in a different way,instead of saying "pink dot,pink dot,pink dot,pink
dot," we can change it and say there's 16 times pink dots,which is easier
to write down than pink dot 16 times,and therefore saves space.It all comes
down to the one binary form.
Intro | The Practical Case | The Economic Case | The Democratic Case | The Cultural Case