• Question: Do you think that science can break down social and cultural barriers, and be free from politics?

    Asked by katheerineegoree98 to Amanda, Ben, Dan, Gary, Samer on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Ben Drumm

      Ben Drumm answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Ooh difficult one – we have a massively diverse workforce at STFC, BUT I reckon those people who have come here from other cultures/backgrounds probably weren’t people who were prejudiced etc. in the first place. I reckon if someone is inherently prejudiced against another group of people, science will struggle to turn them… But scientific collaboration is good for demonstrating how people from different cultures can work together!

      As for free from politics, my work is funded by the government, so we will never be free!!

    • Photo: Dan Weatherill

      Dan Weatherill answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      I think science is definitely a fairly universal language, though there are major problems with things like access to scientific literature in poorer countries.

      As far as being free from politics – no, that can’t happen, because inevitably science is at least partly funded by taxpayer’s money.

      However, it’s been shown time and again that chasing after things which we think will be “useful” is not the best way to get useful things. A lot of abstract and “blue sky” research which was never thought to have technology applications has given us our greatest technology – GPS is impossible without Einstein’s General Relativity, the World Wide Web came out of a particle physics lab as a side project, etc etc.

      The best politicians in my opinion are those who realise that they need to fund science but ultimately let the scientists decide what they should actually do.

    • Photo: Samer Kilani

      Samer Kilani answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      It can certainly do that. CERN started a few years after the second world war and it was about bringing europe together to reverse what the war has done and perhaps unite people with science. It is an excellent example on how people can put all their differences aside and work for one thing and that is research. Doesn’t matter where you come from, your religion, race or your political views everything is put aside. A very good example is actually happening right now in my home country Jordan. An experiment called SESAME is bringing a number of nations in the middle east (Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, and Turkey) and they are all working together for science and research! CERN has seen great potential is this experiment as it can reflect on that. Due to that CERN has always supported the project. Just a few weeks ago CERN granted SESAME a €5 Million grant to help develop the accelerator at SESAME.

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