A Cultural Challenge: Reigniting Scientific Reason in a Technological Age

Word of an instrument invented in the Netherlands that could see faraway things reached Galileo in 1609. Soon he would point his own telescope to the skies to see craters on the moon, spots on the sun, four satellites orbiting Jupiter, rings around Saturn and other celestial wonders. Galileo used his observations to ground theory, and in doing so, helped upend the prevailing beliefs of the time in favor of evidence- based thinking. Over the past five centuries, a tremendous body of knowledge has been produced through the scientific method, and technology has advanced rapidly. Given the progress we’ve made in understanding our world and the technological tools we are developing, we need ways of preparing today’s citizens and future generations to reason with a scientific mindset, in order to use our knowledge wisely and humanely.

Reason as a fundamental part of ‘knowledge,’ as Galileo and his contemporaries believed, belonged to the European intellectual and philosophical movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that came to be known as the Enlightenment. “Dare to know” — Sapere aude — was the phrase Immanuel Kant used, quoting Horace’s First Book of Letters, to describe this epoch where knowledge was based on proof through the scientific method.

Perhaps less appreciated is that the Enlightenment also ushered in an era in which scientific theories were no longer solely the province of an elite schooled in Latin and Greek. Science could be discussed in the language of the common person. Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686), which explained the heliocentric model, was written in accessible French by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. The Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonne des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers (1751), one of the most important books of the Enlightenment, was also written in the French of the day, edited by Denis Diderot. The Encyclopédie, which came to consist of 28 volumes, sought to accumulate all the knowledge in the world and based that knowledge on reason and experiment rather than theology.

No longer the purview of a select group of individuals with the leisure to pursue their curiosity, science has become an important and essential part of our everyday world. Having an understanding of science and mathematics is even more crucial nowadays, for many reasons.

With an economy increasingly based on transformative technologies in health care, energy, transportation, robotics, electronics and more, we need to educate the next generation for the jobs they will inherit. With our media and all-consuming internet landscape plagued by fabrications, distortions, deception and half-truths, we need evidence-based, reasoned thinking to enable us to recognize misinformation. With the vast potential of accelerating research progress through responsible collection and analysis of data, we need willing citizen scientists to participate in these investigations.

Yet in the U.S., we are far from where we need to be. Over the past 25 years, American students have garnered disappointing scores on tests of proficiency in mathematics and science. When compared with their international peers, U.S. students show unimpressive results in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM subjects). According to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test given in 2015, U.S. students ranked 30th in math and 19th in science out of the 35 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This state of affairs will further compromise our competitiveness in an increasingly technological world economy.

Test results always spark discussion as to what other countries are doing that make them more successful in teaching STEM. Yet there is no one-size-fits-all solution to creating STEM learning opportunities, given the diversity of our society. We need to find new venues to capture the imagination of our students and of the greater society as well.

Through our Outreach and Education grant-making program, the Simons Foundation is committed to giving everyone — young and old, those in school and out, scientists and laypeople — a lifetime of opportunities to share in the wonders of discovery.

Math for America (MfA) is one organization we support in order to reverse negative trends in mathematics and science education. MfA is a NYC-based fellowship program for highly accomplished math and science teachers in public education. The four-year fellowship provides an annual stipend to each fellow — but, more important, it provides seminars and minicourses in math, science, pedagogy or policy — most of them created and run by the teachers themselves. “This makes MfA teachers into mathematicians and scientists who inspire their students because they are inspired themselves,” says MfA president John Ewing. MfA was founded on the idea that the best teachers of math and science are those who deeply understand and love their subjects.

However, classroom learning is only one venue for teaching STEM subjects. Once formal education is complete, where do people turn for continued trustworthy information about fundamental science? “When people want to learn more about health, medicine, technology or the environment, there are always plenty of reputable media outlets to turn to,” says Thomas Lin, editor in chief of Quanta Magazine. “But when they want to know what’s happening at the forefront of theoretical physics, pure mathematics or basic biology, there aren’t a lot of reliable options.” Recognizing the absence of fundamental science news coverage, Lin conceived of Quanta. Launched online by Lin and the foundation in 2013, with a mission to ‘illuminate science,’ Quanta provides a steady stream of current news covered by science journalists. “In six short years, Quanta has become one of the most trusted sources for science and math news, because we take great care to produce science journalism that is accurate, substantive and responsible,” Lin says.

Others might want to hear about developments in science directly from the scientists themselves. For these audiences, the foundation offers a weekly lecture series, the Simons Foundation Lectures, where anyone can listen to and interact with top investigators. That said, some scientists are naturally good speakers, while others find it more challenging to translate their ideas for a listening audience. In hopes of coaching scientists to interact more dynamically with their audiences, the award-winning actor and science- show host Alan Alda developed the Alda Method, the centerpiece of Stony Brook University’s Alda Center for Communicating Science, also a Simons Foundation grantee. Alda designed a program of improvisational techniques to help scientists better listen and connect with their audiences. As Alda puts it, “Communication is headed for success when we pay more attention to what the other person is understanding rather than focusing solely on what we want to say.”

Of course, not everyone is even seeking science content, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wouldn’t be interesting and enjoyable for them if it happened to appear in some new and accessible form. Focusing on this possibility, Science Sandbox, an initiative of the foundation’s outreach and education programming, supports projects and partnerships that use unconventional modes to connect audiences to STEM ideas. These inventive new presentations may use storytelling, art and design or novel interactions to ‘unlock scientific thinking.’ Venues for Science Sandbox– supported programs include traditional science centers such as museums and science clubs but also may include surprising new places such as airports, the Department of Motor Vehicles, school parking lots and even rock concerts. It might mean supporting an activity-based STEM program for mostly first-generation immigrant communities in Queens; or hosting a series of late-night science lectures in a warehouse in Brooklyn; or helping to build the largest database of women scientists and scientists of color in the world. According to Greg Boustead, director of Science Sandbox, “Our goal is to reach people who aren’t yet science fans — as well as communities that lack access to science-based opportunities.”

Together, all of the above illustrate the foundation’s efforts to support a rich set of options for interacting with science. Sparking curiosity and opening the door to learning about science and mathematics can take many forms, and the foundation is committed to providing science opportunities to all.

Besides preparing people for a modern economy, engagement with science can also help us all better grasp the ever-changing world around us. After centuries of research, science has made great progress in elucidating the fundamental components of our world. Where will our discoveries take us? How will we use this potential? Knowing the parts of a molecule, an atom, a cell, a gene, and the fact that information can be encoded simply as 0’s and 1’s, we can now look to a future in which we have the capacity to put the parts together in new ways.

Our knowledge of the atom has given us nuclear bombs, but will it also give us more advanced MRI techniques for medical diagnoses? Will we use our understanding of the gene to build made-to-order babies with any traits their parents deem desirable, or cure inherited diseases only? Will new iterations of machine-learning algorithms give us programs that surreptitiously surveil our behavior, or help us better understand disease or more accurately predict catastrophic weather events? Will we fail miserably in our efforts to live with our own innovations, or will we use our knowledge to create a better life and a more peaceful world?

We need the scientific comprehension, the reason, the ethics and the humanism — the basic values of the Enlightenment — to make sure that our scientific discoveries are put to good use. And we need everyone to be part of this discussion. Sapere aude, Horace’s phrase, is also sometimes translated as “Dare to be wise.”

There is one more reason to engage everyone with science. It is a little over 400 years since Galileo pointed his telescope at the night sky and first beheld amazing delights. Today, telescopes are ubiquitous and accessible to many. They come in all shapes and sizes, and more specialized versions detect various signals along the electromagnetic spectrum. Though our scientific equipment has improved, and our knowledge has significantly expanded, one thing will always remain the same: the thrill of discovering things for the first time, firsthand. There is nothing like the magic and beauty of the aha moment of understanding. It’s a joy everyone should experience.