"Uncommon Knowledge to Common Ground:
A New Frontier for Scientific Literacy"
Dr. Rita R. Colwell
Director
National Science Foundation
American Association for the Advancement of Science
San Francisco, California
February 18, 2001
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Thank you very much, Stephen, and a good afternoon
to everyone. It's great to be back at AAAS and a special
pleasure to address all of you. I know we've all been
aware of a special electricity in the air here
in California. I have to say it makes me feel at home--because
Washington can often be a city where everyone is kept
in the dark.
Actually, the National Science Foundation has gotten
tremendous bipartisan support, culminating in our
historic 14% increase.
Many champions stepped forward on our behalf. I can't
name them all, but I do want to mention Senators Stevens,
Byrd, Bond, Mikulski, Lott, Jeffords, Domenici, Frist,
Rockefeller, Kennedy, and Congressman Walsh, and Congressman
Mollohan. They and many, many others stuck with us
until the end.
Now we're working with many new faces in Washington,
and we're very encouraged by the support for fundamental
science and engineering which is clearly bipartisan,
bicameral, and strong. The President and the new administration
have voiced strong support for NSF and for science
and technology as a whole. Education is a top priority.
This is exciting for all of us who are concerned about
our progress as a nation.
We're also excited to be working with Congressman Sherry
Boehlert, the new chair of the House Science Committee.
Many of you may have seen excerpts from his speech
a couple of weeks back.
He pledged to help raise research funding, especially
for the physical sciences and engineering. His conclusion
was--and I quote--"I want to run the Committee in
a way that would make Einstein smile"--that is, he
will not play dice with our universe. He has a longstanding
interest in undergraduate and graduate education,
so we hope to be working with him on efforts to increase
student stipends and other priorities.
We're also looking forward to working with the new
chair of our key subcommittee of the Commerce Committee
in the Senate. Senator Brownback from Kansas has taken
the helm there. Suffice it to say, we have many old
friends, and we'll need to make some new friends.
It will be especially important that we, the science
and engineering community, continue to work together
in a united fashion as we enter this new budget year
with a new Congress and the new Administration.
I'm sure that from the outside, the Federal budget
process seems even more mysterious than in previous
years. The view is about to become clearer.
In two weeks, the President will present his State
of the Union address. It will include the broad outline
of his spending plan. There won't be any budget details--just
targets for major categories of revenue and spending.
The budget details will be released April 3, which
is about two months later than most years. We're all
working to see that research and education remain
a priority.
On the policy front we also need to keep our eye on
two continuing shifts. The first is the shift in the
public and private shares of R&D.; The public share
is down, from over 50% in the 1980s to under 30% today.
The second trend is the shift in funding toward the
life sciences, and away from the math and physical
sciences. Many of you have heard me cite these trends
before, and we see them still underway. The picture
is complex. The life sciences are truly blossoming,
as shown in the recent revelations about the human
genome. Such successes rest upon a foundation of discoveries
from all fields.
How does this all relate to my main topic today? Science
and engineering now permeate all of our lives, whether
we work in a laboratory or a latté bar. We
see connections everywhere--between research and education;
between fundamental physics and biomedical breakthroughs,
and between scientific literacy and a healthy 21st
century economy.
We have a long way to go to bring our "uncommon knowledge"
in the sciences to common ground with the society
that surrounds and supports us. To lead into our discussion
of scientific and technological literacy, I'd like
to set the stage with a short video. NBC deserves
a big "thank-you" for a wonderful wake-up call for
science literacy. It features Jay Leno quizzing the
man and woman on the street. Let's see the video.
When I first saw this segment, one particular answer
continued to ring in my ears. It was the response
by the fellow in the red shirt who said he didn't
need to know where volcanic lava came from--because
it had nothing to do with him. Part of our task is
to demonstrate that science and technology have a
great deal to do with everyone.
Many of you have probably read or heard about the scientific
bestseller, Galileo's Daughter. Scientific
literacy takes center stage in the story. Author Dava
Sobel has chronicled the life of Galileo and the struggle
between exploration and deeply held belief. The National
Science Board has also awarded Sobel its public service
award this year. In the book we learn that Galileo
himself expanded the arena in which his ideas were
to reverberate. As Sobel writes, Galileo's "flamboyant
style of promulgating his ideas--sometimes in bawdy
humorous writings, sometimes loudly at dinner parties
and staged debates--transported the new astronomy
from the Latin Quarters of the universities into the
public arena." We know the price he paid for his flamboyance.
Galileo's story fascinates us centuries later as we
grapple with the science-society connection in ever-new
ways. Today, science and technology are the sinews
of our economy and of so much more. It is said that
about 90% of all scientists who have ever lived are
alive today. Most seem to be in San Francisco this
week!
Here is a paradox: although the general population
supports public funding of research on science and
technology, most people do not understand much about
it. In NSF surveys over the past 20 years, nine out
of ten adults reported interest in new scientific
discoveries. Yet, in 1999, only 17 percent considered
themselves well informed about science and technology.
We've known about this divide for some time, but it
seems more worrisome than ever before.
James Madison said, "A people who mean to be their
own governours, must arm themselves with the power
which knowledge gives." We look back to when our country
was founded and think how modest were the dimensions
of knowledge. Madison and compatriots would be astonished
to see how scientific literacy plays out in a growing
number of issues--medical, environmental, or educational.
We must equip our citizens, from young to old, with
basic scientific knowledge. Such knowledge is a new
requirement for participation in a democracy.
We see here the new report on threats to our national
security, issued by a bipartisan Federal advisory
committee called the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st
Century. It is headed by former Senators Gary Hart
and Warren Rudman and charged with a comprehensive
review of our national security. Most relevant to
us is the commission's second highest recommendation
on national security: we need to invest in and rebuild
the U.S. science and education enterprises.
To quote the report, "...the inadequacies of our systems
of research and education pose a greater threat to
U.S. national security over the next quarter century
than any potential conventional war we might imagine."
The Commission judged that only a weapon of mass destruction
exploding in a major city posed a greater threat.
We hear a rising chorus of voices linking math and
science literacy to the health of our democracy and
our economy. Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan
testified to a House Committee last year on the economic
importance of improving math and science education.
While citing a growing need for better analytical
skills in the workforce, he expressed concern about
a "continuing shortfall" of homegrown skilled technical
workers.
Our democracy needs knowledgeable citizens, and our
economy needs highly trained workers. But there is
another new reason why our need for science literacy
has become so vital today. Increasingly we need scientific
information and thinking skills to make critical choices
in our individual lives, notably to make medical and
health decisions. A friend's mother kept the Internet
out of her house until she became ill with very serious
symptoms. Seven doctors offered contradictory opinions.
She has become a partner in her own health care, thanks
to her new willingness to seek information on the
Web. We need to make sure the information is valid,
and help to cultivate skills for critical evaluation.
These choices come home to us in many ways, from medical
tests to genetically modified food to what our children
are taught in school. Our understanding of science
and technology should help us to deal with these situations.
I would like to look very briefly at three case areas
where science is meeting society, and where I think
we can all do a better job at promoting honest and
fruitful dialogue with the public. These areas are
biotechnology, information technology, and nanotechnology.
In the area of biotechnology, we've seen a fair amount
of hype from many sides, which has tended to obscure
the airing of valid scientific questions. As ever
it's a matter of balancing risks and benefits. A review
article in last December's Science Magazine,
discussed in the New York Times, pointed out
that there are still unknowns about the environmental
consequences of modified organisms. That said, the
potential promise is huge--beginning with adding beta-carotene
to rice. Such rice could improve the lives of millions
of the world's malnourished children, countering Vitamin-A
deficiency and blindness.
NSF support for biocomplexity gives a perspective for
this discussion. This framework links the physical
and living worlds in a comprehensive way, with the
ultimate goal of being able to predict the consequences
of modifying our environment.
I'd also like to cite a recent study of U.S. attitudes
toward biotechnology conducted by Susanna Priest of
Texas A and M. Conventional wisdom has it that genetic
engineering is not a big issue in this country, but
the new results suggest that may no longer hold true.
U.S. residents do have fewer concerns than Europeans,
but support for biotechnology may be weakening. Fifty-three
percent say that genetic engineering will improve
our way of life, but 30 percent believe genetic engineering
"will make things worse." In this study, biotechnology
ranked sixth out of seven among the technologies rated--only
nuclear energy ranked lower. It's especially interesting
that the trends held across all educational levels.
Let's look at another area with an urgent need for
public dialogue--information technology--which is
revolutionizing science as well as society. This image
symbolizes some of the dazzling promise of IT--enabling
virtual collaboration with colleagues around the globe.
In creating technology, however, we make seemingly
technical choices that have social consequences. A
well-known example is the fact that e-mail does not
usually show the sender's status. Is the writer an
eighth-grader or a senior scientist? Social scientists
point out that this design feature lets e-mail fly
across hierarchical levels and creates new patterns
of communication in organizations.
Another concern is on-line privacy. The Association
of Computing Machinery has a code of ethics; it notes
that IT "enables the collection and exchange of personal
information on a scale unprecedented in the history
of civilization." Last year, identity theft, made
easier by IT, was the number one complaint of consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission records 1700 inquiries
about identify fraud every week, up from 400 a week
in March last year.
More information about all of us has potential to be
accessed online, without sufficient discussion--our
medical records, our vehicle identification, our grocery
purchases, and more. Education and dialogue are vitally
needed to enable the public to make real choices on
the design and use of technology. For example, web
pages could offer visitors the option to be included
in a database or not. The design would include the
decision to make the default choice "yes" or "no."
This decision will affect the value of the information
collected. Who makes that choice? As one participant
at an NSF-funded workshop said, one or a handful of
programmers now makes decisions that affect millions.
A third good example of a scientific and technological
issue ripe for public airing is nanotechnology. Here
we see an example: micromachined needles developed
at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The tips can
pierce the skin easily and without pain--a novel new
method for drug delivery.
Nanotechnology has generated unease in some quarters,
yet here is a technology with tremendous economic
potential--able to change the way almost everything
is designed, from medicine to computers. It will let
us create materials and structures from the bottom
up--the way nature does it. Here also is an example
of an emerging area of research where we have a great
opportunity for real dialogue with the public, also
from the bottom up.
These are just three cases of how science and technology
touch our daily lives, presenting unprecedented opportunities
but also value-laden decisions. NSF is very concerned
about fostering greater public understanding of science
and engineering and its role in public debate. We're
now discussing the possibility of sponsoring a series
of forums on key issues of national debate.
These examples tell us why we need to work for science
literacy in the broadest sense, and why we need to
engage in dialogue in the deepest sense. NSF itself
puts great emphasis on integrating research and education
across the board.
We all owe a debt to Neal Lane for bequeathing to us
his concept of the civic scientist--the scientist
whose engagement with society is as integral to one's
career as is conducting research. (Some of you may
have attended the AAAS session on the civic scientist
a couple of days ago--itself a tribute to Neal's thoughtful
and lasting contribution.) Now we must build on that
foundation and promote science literacy as our own
responsibility. As scientists we need to be as much
a part of education at the grade school and high school
levels as we are at the graduate level.
I've also mentioned dialogue with the public--our other
responsibility. Much has changed since Galileo's time,
but our role is not to serve as the new authority
handing down answers from on high. Rather, we need
to have public conversations about our science, armed
not only with our specialized knowledge but also with
humility and the ability to listen.
Mark Twain said, "Get your facts first, and then you
can distort them as much as you please." There is
a grain of truth there in that higher thinking rests
on some basic definitions and concepts. Here we see
some data from public surveys published in Science
and Engineering Indicators- 2000. Some of this
may be familiar. From the top, we see that 13% could
define the term "molecule" and 29% could define "DNA."
(Both percentages represent increases since 1995.)
However, fewer than half of those surveyed knew that
the Earth takes a year to circle the sun. (Now that's
news enough to make Galileo turn over in his grave,
not to mention Jay Leno.) A little more than half
did know that human beings didn't live at the same
time as dinosaurs. Eighty percent did know about continental
drift.
It's not only the facts that are missing. Our surveys
show that three-quarters of Americans do not understand
the nature of scientific inquiry. This is critical
to comprehending the often-contradictory scientific
results presented daily as bits of news. As always,
Bob Park of the American Physical Society has words
to the point. "It is not so much knowledge of science
the public needs as a scientific world view--and understanding
that we live in an orderly universe, governed by physical
laws that cannot be circumvented."
Now that the year 2000 is over we know that many of
the psychics' popular predictions did not come true.
For example, Prince Charles did not announce his engagement
while flying in a space shuttle; space aliens didn't
sleep in the Lincoln bedroom, and an earthquake did
not destroy San Francisco. We do have reasons to be
thankful.
This chart about the public perception of astrology
may show a glass half-empty or half-full. About 60%
of the public does not believe astrology is scientific
but a third does think it is "sort of scientific."
To be sure, a horoscope can be harmless fun, if you
don't call your astrologer before your doctor.
I'd like to move now to a few creative efforts to tackle
the challenge of communicating science and the scientific
process, many with NSF support. Visitors to the Boston
Museum of Science explore research in a deeper way
through an exhibit that teaches science as a process,
including observation, experiment, and application.
Here children hook fish in the Virtual Fish Tank,
learning about the role of computer simulation in
the scientific process.
Our concept of science and math literacy must continually
expand to embrace new means of communication. With
the explosion of information on the Internet, and
less mediated control of information delivery, we
need new internal filters to find reliable channels
of information. This need will become even more acute
as broadband and other technologies give us more information
at our fingertips, both scientific and pseudoscientific.
Critical thinking skills become more critical
for all ages.
At the same time much information is becoming more
visual, perhaps even eventually more auditory as well.
We are challenged to expand our concept of literacy
to match.
Literacy can extend beyond the written word. Visual
communication can be complementary and powerful. We
must think of educating not just science writers but
science communicators. Many of you may be familiar
with the striking images of Felice Frankel, artist-in-residence
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here
we see two identical images of yeast colonies. The
one on the right is simply lit in a different way--a
subtle change that also changes the researcher's point
of view.
On the left we see the researcher's image of laminar
flow through a polymer. On the right Felice has added
more colors, not only to improve aesthetics but to
illustrate the science more vividly.
One more pair. This is "before"--showing a hydrophobic
pattern on a self-assembled monolayer.
Here's the same concept, now with a checkerboard pattern
and vibrantly colored dye. The pattern and the contrasting
colors--in other words, the aesthetics--clarify the
scientific point, which is the separation of the blue
and green squares.
Felice is helping to organize a conference in June
on using images to communicate science and technology.
She is also about to publish a handbook on envisioning
science. Both have NSF support.
We can appreciate not only the scientific value but
the beauty of images such as these, each quality enhancing
the other. We need to think creatively about how to
present our work visually to the public.
We can even venture into the realm of sound to communicate.
Sound can enliven the classroom and reach the non-visual
learner. I'd like to play you just a few measures
from the "Climate Symphony," by composer and computer
scientist Marty Quinn. This work is based on climate
patterns recorded in the ice sheet of Greenland over
the past 100,000 years. The fluctuations in the music
mirror the changing chemistry in the ice core over
time. Essentially we "hear" the changes in temperature
and precipitation.
Informal science centers--museums, planetariums and
the like--can catalyze and complement science education
in the classroom. At Liberty Science Center in New
Jersey, students can watch and question surgeons remotely
while open-heart surgery is underway.
Science centers have great freedom to carry out educational
experiments, to take risks, to forge new methods for
learning-based inquiry. They provide opportunities
to enjoy learning about science as families, at all
ages, in unexpected ways. Many of the centers are
forging stronger links with schools. They now do a
large share of professional development for K-8 teachers.
San Francisco's own Exploratorium features an NSF-funded,
web-based project called "Origins," in which a live
audience at the center visits science in action. The
first virtual visit was to the European accelerator
CERN. The webcast is now archived on the Exploratorium
website. The idea is to focus not just on scientific
events but to take people into the everyday world
of research. Part of the project is to evaluate how
we can use information technology for the most effective
learning. Through the web the science center expands
its reach to the world.
Opportunities for outreach are everywhere. To help
celebrate NSF's anniversary recently, we supported
a series of public service announcements for kids.
They're called "Find Out Why" and I'd like to share
just one with you. It focuses on why it's cold at
the Earth's Poles. Here it is.
We move now to another critical area: mathematics.
Math is a vital component of that uncommon knowledge
we seek to transform into common ground. Just last
week the Washington Post featured this headline:
"Math Illiteracy Spells Trouble." The reporter quoted
a woman who was buying a lottery ticket; she said
her odds weren't good, "but I think I have a chance."
Her odds were actually 1 in 80 million.
Math literacy begins with a healthy foundation of mathematical
discovery. The deep truth and beauty of mathematics
is woven throughout science and engineering. E.O.
Wilson writes that "...mathematics seems to point
arrowlike toward the ultimate goal of objective truth."
Mathematics is the ultimate cross-cutting discipline,
the springboard for advances across the board.
Computing now allows us to share some of the beauty
of the mathematical world of the imagination. This
work, "Jovean Bees," is by Jean Constant and uses
a program by mathematician Richard Palais.
Fundamental mathematics engenders concepts that often
turn out to be just the right framework for applications
in seemingly unrelated areas. Fractal sets like this
one can be used in computer graphics to build clouds,
plants, or the surface of the sea. They are also a
goldmine for medical modeling--of lungs or networks
of blood vessels.
NSF is proposing a new investment in mathematics with
three thrusts. The first two are to advance fundamental
math and accelerate mathematical interchange among
the disciplines. Our third objective is to promote
mathematical literacy.
We're already helping to support a website called "Figure
This!", featuring math challenges for families. Some
of the challenges include: "Why aren't manhole covers
square?" "What is round, hard, and sold for $3 million?"
"Can you make money selling Beanie Babies?" I'll let
you visit the website for the answers: www.figurethis.org.
I believe that literacy begins with a spark of excitement.
I'd like to flip quickly through some recent exciting
scientific highlights. Every one of them has the potential
to catch a child's attention or transform our view
of the universe or affect our daily lives. Here we
see the oldest living organism found so far. It's
a bacterium entombed in crystals of salt from a deep
excavation in New Mexico. The research was published
in Nature last fall.
This new dinosaur was unveiled last month. It's a dog-sized
predator from Madagascar, and some of its teeth protrude
almost horizontally.
Glittering new panoramas of the universe are being
unrolled by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The digital
archive, a "silicon universe" of a hundred million
objects, can be used by any astronomer and indeed,
anyone on the Internet.
In the center of this picture we see the unprepossessing
weed called Arabidopsis, whose genome sequencing made
headlines last December. We call Arabidopsis the mapmaker
for the plant kingdom, because we can use its genetic
information to help decipher the genomics of 250,000
other plant species. Several of its genes are related
to human genes associated with disease. Here's a discovery
based on public funding with clear implications for
transforming our lives--one demanding dialogue with
the public.
I would like to complete this quick scan through some
scientific highlights by sharing a short excerpt from
the new IMAX film on the sun. It was supported by
NSF and it's called "SolarMax." It lets us look right
at the sun, with real images that reveal the dynamism
and power of our star to everyone. We'll see satellite
images of the full solar disk as well as another image
30 million miles wide, showing solar emissions into
space. Let's look into the sun.
Galileo with his sunspot studies helped launch us on
the journey that brought us this unprecedented look
at our nearest star. Yet we must continue to open
our eyes, and our ears. We can only realize the full
benefits of science and technology by engaging together
with society, promoting new approaches to understanding
science and technology, stirring the sense of wonder
in children and adults alike. If each of us could
strike a spark, it could help light the way to common
ground.
We move now to another critical area: mathematics.
Math is a vital component of that uncommon knowledge
we seek to transform into common ground. Just last
week the Washington Post featured this headline:
"Math Illiteracy Spells Trouble." The reporter quoted
a woman who was buying a lottery ticket; she said
her odds weren't good, "but I think I have a chance."
Her odds were actually 1 in 80 million.
Math literacy begins with a healthy foundation of mathematical
discovery. The deep truth and beauty of mathematics
is woven throughout science and engineering. E.O.
Wilson writes that "...mathematics seems to point
arrowlike toward the ultimate goal of objective truth."
Mathematics is the ultimate cross-cutting discipline,
the springboard for advances across the board.
Computing now allows us to share some of the beauty
of the mathematical world of the imagination. This
work, "Jovean Bees," is by Jean Constant and uses
a program by mathematician Richard Palais.
Fundamental mathematics engenders concepts that often
turn out to be just the right framework for applications
in seemingly unrelated areas. Fractal sets like this
one can be used in computer graphics to build clouds,
plants, or the surface of the sea. They are also a
goldmine for medical modeling--of lungs or networks
of blood vessels.
NSF is proposing a new investment in mathematics with
three thrusts. The first two are to advance fundamental
math and accelerate mathematical interchange among
the disciplines. Our third objective is to promote
mathematical literacy.
We're already helping to support a website called "Figure
This!", featuring math challenges for families. Some
of the challenges include: "Why aren't manhole covers
square?" "What is round, hard, and sold for $3 million?"
"Can you make money selling Beanie Babies?" I'll let
you visit the website for the answers: www.figurethis.org.
I believe that literacy begins with a spark of excitement.
I'd like to flip quickly through some recent exciting
scientific highlights. Every one of them has the potential
to catch a child's attention or transform our view
of the universe or affect our daily lives. Here we
see the oldest living organism found so far. It's
a bacterium entombed in crystals of salt from a deep
excavation in New Mexico. The research was published
in Nature last fall.
This new dinosaur was unveiled last month. It's a dog-sized
predator from Madagascar, and some of its teeth protrude
almost horizontally.
Glittering new panoramas of the universe are being
unrolled by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The digital
archive, a "silicon universe" of a hundred million
objects, can be used by any astronomer and indeed,
anyone on the Internet.
In the center of this picture we see the unprepossessing
weed called Arabidopsis, whose genome sequencing made
headlines last December. We call Arabidopsis the mapmaker
for the plant kingdom, because we can use its genetic
information to help decipher the genomics of 250,000
other plant species. Several of its genes are related
to human genes associated with disease. Here's a discovery
based on public funding with clear implications for
transforming our lives--one demanding dialogue with
the public.
I would like to complete this quick scan through some
scientific highlights by sharing a short excerpt from
the new IMAX film on the sun. It was supported by
NSF and it's called "SolarMax." It lets us look right
at the sun, with real images that reveal the dynamism
and power of our star to everyone. We'll see satellite
images of the full solar disk as well as another image
30 million miles wide, showing solar emissions into
space. Let's look into the sun.
Galileo with his sunspot studies helped launch us on
the journey that brought us this unprecedented look
at our nearest star. Yet we must continue to open
our eyes, and our ears. We can only realize the full
benefits of science and technology by engaging together
with society, promoting new approaches to understanding
science and technology, stirring the sense of wonder
in children and adults alike. If each of us could
strike a spark, it could help light the way to common
ground.
Thank you.
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