Is Science Dying?

 Jack Harrington

Professor Horgan

HST-401

24 January 2024

Is Science Dying?

In an age dominated by technology and new discoveries it is absurd to claim science could be approaching its untimely end. Innovations in various domains of science continue to further our understanding of the world and space around us. However, there are individuals who possess a distrust of these advancements. These feelings run beyond the general public and even extend as far as the scientific community itself.

Misconceptions about science can be tied to a variety of sources. General lack of knowledge on a topic, misunderstanding discussed topics, political affiliations, and even groupthink. It is hard to definitively locate the main source of this issue. Flam attributes the general mistrust of science to the ability to find uniformed scientists on both sides of divisive problems. For example, we can observe the scientific discussion surrounding global warming. Scientists are divided about the severity. Some believe it will cause major changes to the landscape of the planet and others are seemingly less worried. This issue further extends to solutions for the crisis. Nuclear power and the efficiency of alternative energy sources becomes another whole debate amongst the scientific community. These divisions heavily contribute to the levels of public mistrust in scientific discoveries and are greatly concerning. The average individual is not a scientist and has no idea who to trust. In navigating this issue, the question emerges: if we can find scientists backing both sides, how do we know who to trust?

There exist two major solutions to the problem of trusting science: knowledge and transparency. The knowledge portion of this solution begins with us, but should extend to lesser informed scientists as well. We must research a variety of positions surrounding a topic in science before we make a decision on who to trust. We must also avoid the pitfalls of groupthink by not blindly siding with groups we affiliate with. According to Flam, the issue of groupthink around science typically occurs with political parties. She states, “we live in an environment where these issues have been associated with admission to a group”. This was in reference to a poll conducted about trust in science by self-reported conservatives and liberals. We need to escape the ideas pushed by a specific group and perform analysis and critical thinking for ourselves. Being part of a group should not mean losing your ability to think freely and intelligently.

The second method of solving the problem of distrust in science is achieved through transparency. Flam states that papers that are more disruptive within the scientific community are often cited more. This means that inflammatory papers and ideas are viewed most often. This diverts the attention of scientists from the core research issue and causes the general population to choose sides. Instead, scientists need to be more focused on their individual research and clearly presenting all of their findings. Currently, “journals are implicitly encouraging authors to do whatever it takes to obtain eye-catching results” (Vazire 2). This implies that scientists and journals are primarily motivated to display overly polished research to the public. This again detracts from the research conducted. Making scientific publications more accessible to the public through providing raw data, author’s intentions, number of studies conducted, and analyses attempted would raise trust in the quality of the experiments (Vazire 3). Continuing to present scientific findings without these key features will allow the distrust of science to prevail; leaving science to die.

Works Cited


Flam, F.D. “Have Scientific Breakthroughs Declined?” Bloomberg.Com, Bloomberg, 23 Dec. 2023, www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-23/have-scientific-breakthroughs-declined?embedded-checkout=true. 

Flam, F.D. “Question Authority, but Trust Science.” Bloomberg.Com, Bloomberg, 6 Nov. 2016, www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-11-06/question-authority-but-trust-science?embedded-checkout=true. 

Vazire, Simine. “Quality Uncertainty Erodes Trust in science.” Collabra: Psychology, vol. 3, no. 1, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.74. 

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