[marc / berkeley]

I was going to kid and type "we should pray for them", but I think I would have destroyed any credibility here. It has been an amazing ride to see how science is treated in today’s scientist.  People want answers but aren’t happy once they receive them and are unwilling to support research to produce significant results to bring about better answers.  Scientists are forced to go for the low hanging fruit to show progress, which takes away from more serious research to find long term answers.

They need more scientists.

They want more scientists.

But we seem to have a society of lobbyists and religious extremists trying to undermine this effort.  Knowledge is power, and keeping a segment of society ignorant seems to be the best way to create an undercurrent to challenge the quest for scientific information.  If it weren’t for really dedicated people, we would not see any progress at all.  Of course economics also is key, if a discovery has the potential to make money, it is more desirable or if the discovery has potential weapons applications.

How do we change the public perception of science to make it apolitical?

If we can remove science from politics and keep it out of religion ( a tall order ), maybe something positive could happen.