The British Attitude to the Sciences

A relatively new addition to the British calendar has just finished (March 1995). The need to have a British Science Week reflects the growing concern that we have about the state of our industry, and our ability to compete on a global scale with both our fellow Europeans and Japan, and the NICs (Newly Industrialising Countries) of Asia. Attention is not just directed at our industry but also at more serious matters of a global concern;

"One third o f the public still believes the sun goes round the Earth - and two thirds do not know how long the orbit takes. This ignorance is not confined to the man in the street. Parliamentary surveys have shown MPs completely confused over the causes o f the three main environmental threats: acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer, and global warming. ”

(The Guardian: Comment 27/3/95)

As the article goes on to confirm, there is a substantial self-interest behind the merriment of Science Week. The President of the British Scientific Association believes that a public ignorance allows research budgets to be cut without the rigmarole of protest associated with both health-care cuts and education cuts. A

comment by the Science Minister, David Hunt, is unlikely to be directed at the UK in the near fiiture:

‘'The nation that embraces science and technology most willingly and most effectively will be the winners in tomorrow’s world ”

(Op. cit, 27/3/95)

Future government science policy is to have a rethink. At the launch of Science Week it was announced that a panel of six Nobel prize winners would help to shape Britain’s scientific future. Meetings are set to include leading scientists across the country. However, it is not simply a case of deciding the best way to generate scientific expertise, starting with remedying the poor scientific representation in our schools, although this is an urgent consideration. There is also the significant problem of creating a global competitiveness for the British high-technology industry. The commercial part of Mackintosh’s definition of innovation is therefore suffering. There are some exceptions. In the recent Prince of Wales Awards for Innovation, the winning company was JCB who had re-invented an existing product, the tractor. It was networking between the company and the market, involving co-makership, which had led to the commercial success. The company had set out from the start to listen to the market so that commercial success could be more easily guaranteed. It was this co-makership, the final product and its commercial success (0% to 10% of the market in two years), which had won the award.

The President of the British Scientific Association recently advocated that:

“Scientists have paid too little attention in the past to celebrating their successes or communicating the excitement which scientific research can generate. A t last they are learning how to sell themselves. ”

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# T H E m ost im p a r ta n t m olecule on th e p la n e t p u lled in to E u sto n S ta tio n in London y e ste rd a y to fo rm th e c e n tre p ie c e of a g en etics e x h ib itio n th a t is e x p e c te d to be v isited by 400,000 ra il tra v e lle rs , w rites Roger Highfield, S cienc e Editor.

T he 15ft m odel of th e DNA m olecule, w hich holds th e in s tru c tio n s to m ake e v ery p ro te in

in th e h u m an body, w ill be used in th e e x h ib itio n ab o u t d ev elo p m en ts in g en etics. “We w ant to give people th e in fo rm atio n so th a t they can m ake up th e ir own m inds about the ethical issues arisin g from genetic engineering,” said M s M ary Rice, of the M edical R esearch Council, w hich organised the event w ith the W ellcome T rust.

Even out of the panel of Nobel prize winners, two of the most recent British scientific successes left for the USA where presumably they were better appreciated and accommodated. Akio Morita pointed out that we do not hold scientists in as high

regard as many other leading innovative countries around the world. This is

something that filters down to credit institutions who are unwilling to finance long­ term scientific research projects. One of the major foundations of the success of Baden-Württemburg has been the responsiveness of the credit institutions who not only make finances available but are also the principal source of complementary funding schemes such as technological aid programmes for the region.

Until the British attitude towards science improves, the high-technology sector and Hertfordshire as a potential technopole, will face barriers of a decreasing labour pool of skilled scientists, government cut-backs and therefore a lack of competitiveness of British high-technology firms.