NAS President Urges 'Scientific Temper' to Improve World

Newswise — Teaching young people to enjoy learning science " no matter what they grow up to be " is an investment in the world's future, National Academy of Sciences President Bruce Alberts said Thursday (Feb. 17) in a speech to Mississippi scientists.

Alberts gave the keynote lecture of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences' 75th annual meeting, hosted by the University of Mississippi. Nearly 600 of the state's top scientists and students attended the two-day event, which included symposiums, competitions and lectures.

Alberts, the nation's top scientist, began his lecture at the Oxford Conference Center with a picture of children climbing a statue of Albert Einstein in front of the NAS offices in Washington, D.C., explaining that he wanted science to be meaningful and enjoyable to children everywhere.

"In an ever more complicated and dangerous world, science needs a much higher profile," Alberts said. "We need a scientific temper for the world and here in the U.S."

At the university level, science education should continue not just for those going on to become professors, researchers and doctors but also for people going into journalism, government, business and policy-making, Alberts said.

"We need to work to spread scientific values throughout society. "¦ Scientific values of openness and honesty are critical for creating a more rational world," he said. "There is far too much dogma in this world."

The National Academy lately has been working to help high school science teachers "under attack" by creationists who want to limit the teaching of evolution in schools, Alberts said. He grouped people who support the "intelligent design" theory with creationists, saying both resorted to supernatural explanations for the origin of life and were, therefore, religious, not scientific, theories.

"Right now, many teachers don't teach evolution at all because they're afraid of being attacked for it," Alberts said. NAS wants to protect and support those teachers, he said.

Alberts also challenged rote memorization as a teaching method and primary basis for testing in schools today. "Memorization is of little use in an age when information is doubling every two or three years," he said. Instead, education should consist of "guided inquiries, with teachers as coaches."

Alberts said changing this fundamental method of teaching science is an ambitious goal but must happen if the United States " which lags behind Asia and Europe in the number science-related degrees earned " is to remain a world leader.

While America may need to catch up, Alberts said the spread of science education around the globe is actually a very good thing, something that could save the world.

"Science has created weapons capable of terrible destruction, and we're not going to keep that knowledge out of the wrong hands forever," Alberts said. "In this world, the spread of scientific values " which are rational, open and non-dogmatic " may be our best defense against dogmatic non-tolerance."

Even before assuming the NAS top post 12 years ago, Alberts was well known and highly respected as a molecular biologist and biochemist. His book "The Molecular Biology of the Cell" is used in college classrooms across the country and is considered to be the definitive text on the subject. He is considered a world leader in research, scientific ethics and science education.

The opening symposium of the annual meeting featured researchers from UM's Center for Community Earthquake Preparedness. Geologist Charles Swann explained how the New Madrid Fault zone and lesser-known small fault zones running through Mississippi put it at risk for a potentially major earthquake. Civil engineering professor Chris Mullen, director of CCEP, detailed the work his group has done to help the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency calculate earthquake risk in the state and develop a statewide hazard mitigation plan.

"Many people don't associate Mississippi with earthquakes," Swann said. "One of the things we'd like to hammer home through our work is that, indeed, Mississippi does have an earthquake hazard, and this hazard puts lives and property at risk."

For more information about CCEP and its research, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/ccep. For more information about the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, visit http://www.msacad.org.