Civic Science

The public and peer review literature: Pearls before swine?

by Andrew Maynard September 5, 2011

This morning I sat down with my 14 year old son and asked him what area of science caught his interest especially. He answered “the future of space exploration”. We carried out a search on the Web of Science for “future + space + exploration”, and the fifth article returned was “Comparing future options for [...]

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The Human Project needs your help!

by Andrew Maynard August 25, 2011

Here’s an interesting idea – build a free iPad app that kicks off a global conversation about the future of the human species. The Human Project is the brain child of Erika Ilves & Anna Stillwell. At its core is a yet-to-be-built iPad app that captures the essence of humanity past and future – who [...]

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Building trust between science and society: A Scientist’s Manifesto

by Andrew Maynard May 9, 2010

Having recently finished Robert Winston’s “Bad Ideas? An Arresting History of our Inventiveness,” I was rather taken by his concluding “Scientist’s Manifesto” – a fourteen-point guide to help strengthen the relationship between science and society. As well as reflecting much of my own thinking, it embodies many of the ideas coming out of the science [...]

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Engaging the public on science? Surely you’re joking!

by Andrew Maynard March 10, 2010

I was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago where engaging the public (or “publics” to be more accurate) in science came up. In the course of discussions, I mentioned an initiative by Research Councils UK to involve members of the public in developing a call for research proposals on the use of nanotechnology [...]

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Hooked on tech – ten alternative perspectives on technology innovation

by Andrew Maynard December 10, 2009

2020 Science is something of a labor of love – it’s a website where I explore my thoughts and ideas surrounding the interface between science, technology and society beyond the constraints of my “day job” (currently Chief Science Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center). I like to think I [...]

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Science: So what? – So what?

by Andrew Maynard November 27, 2009

I sat down this morning to write a light-hearted blog about the UK government’s “Science: So what? So everything” campaign. The angle was going to be: Why write about this when people want to read about this? But the more I dug around, the more apparent it became that this is an initiative that seems [...]

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Reflections of a “scientific illiterate”

by Andrew Maynard August 11, 2009

Reviewing Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future, by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum My name is Andrew, and I am scientifically illiterate. Just thought I’d get that off my chest! And before you protest too much, I do have some pretty convincing evidence. Math makes my head ache. I cannot recite the Earth’s [...]

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Celebrity scientists – it takes more than stardust

by Andrew Maynard June 27, 2009

It’s been a few weeks now since the men’s style magazine GQ launched the “Rock Stars of Science” campaign. I’m a staunch advocate of raising science’s profile, but the whole campaign has had me on edge, and I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on why. Was it the exclusive use of white [...]

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Cultural smokescreens

by Andrew Maynard May 6, 2009

50 years on, have we missed the point of C.P. Snow’s “Two-cultures?” 50 years ago, long before Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme,” the British scientist, public figure and novelist Charles Percy Snow planted an idea into the collective consciousness that has since grown to have a profound influence on science and the arts in [...]

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Culture clash – Probing CP Snow’s Two Cultures, part 2

by Andrew Maynard May 5, 2009

Last week I asked a rather trivial (did someone say trite?) question (the 2-second Two-Cultures poll) about perpetual motion machines – as a gentle lead-up to this week’s 50th anniversary of CP Snow’s Two Cultures lecture. So what were the results and what can be learned, if anything, from them? First, here are the data [...]

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Deconstructing the “Fry Event Horizon”

by Andrew Maynard March 6, 2009

I’ve been intending writing about Ray Kurzweil and the technological singularity for some time now. This isn’t that blog—it is a Friday evening after all, at the end of a long week. But it is connected with some of the ideas behind the singularity. Instead, I’m going to write about the “Fry Event Horizon”—a phenomenon [...]

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Science, society and the Second Enlightenment

by Andrew Maynard February 23, 2009

It’s barely a month since Obama promised to “restore science to its rightful place” and already there has been widespread discussion over what this rightful place might be—spurred on in no small part by science and technology provisions in the recently passed stimulus bill. Not surprisingly, the role science should play in 21st century society [...]

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Thank goodness for Sir Robert

by Andrew Maynard February 5, 2009

I’ve been sitting here for over half an hour, trying to work out how to start this blog in an engaging and witty way, but have failed miserably—it’s been a long day! Instead, let me come straight to the point, because it’s quite a simple one—please read Sir Robert Winston’s article “Why turning out brilliant [...]

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Revisiting the Civic Scientist

by Andrew Maynard February 1, 2009

Reading through the various science and technology offerings on the web this morning, I was struck by a conversation between Houston Chronicle reporter Eric Berger and Neal Lane, former National Science Foundation director and science advisor to President Clinton. Not surprisingly, towards the top of the conversation is President Obama’s commitment to “restore science to [...]

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A red-letter day for science and technology

by Andrew Maynard January 20, 2009

As Barack Obama takes the oath and is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, many are anticipating a new era of socially relevant science and technology. Having run one of the most technologically savvy campaigns in recent times—possibly ever—Obama’s transition teams continued to break new ground in using technology up open up [...]

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Nanotechnology, science and public engagement—lessons from the UK

by Andrew Maynard January 13, 2009

Public engagement was a key feature in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and has been front and foremost in the transition between the old administration and the new. You only have to check out change.gov to see how ideas are evolving on soliciting and evaluating opinions from a broad swath of the population. The latest is [...]

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Scientific knowledge, and the “pay to play” culture

by Andrew Maynard January 7, 2009

Here’s a bit of trivia to brighten your day: Between 2000 and 2007, Chinese scientists published roughly one nanotoxicology paper for every ten million people in the country. In contrast, US scientists published twenty-five nanotoxicology papers for every ten million citizens. I know this because I have just read a fascinating assessment of nanotoxicology publications [...]

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A "manifesto" for socially-relevant science and technology

by Andrew Maynard December 24, 2008

In 2003, Harvard University’s Sheila Jasanoff wrote about what she termed “Technologies of Humility.” Recognizing the growing disconnect between technological progress and its effective governance, Jasanoff explored new approaches to decision-making that “seek to integrate the ‘can-do’ orientation of science and engineering with the ‘should-do’ questions of ethical and political analysis.” Five years on, her [...]

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Five good books

by Andrew Maynard November 5, 2008

Obama and science – Essential bed-time reading for the next Administration Finally, the campaigning is over, everyone knows more about fruit flies than they ever wanted to (thank you Sarah Palin), and on an historic day America has “voted for change.” As the country looks forward to a radical change in leadership, the coming weeks [...]

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Five slightly harder pieces—underpinning sound science policy

by Andrew Maynard October 26, 2008

With just over a week to go before the 2008 US presidential election, there’s no shortage of opinions floating around on the key science and technology-related challenges facing an incoming Obama or McCain administration. But while advice swirls around issues like nanotechnology, synthetic biology, the environment, and establishing a top-level presidential science adviser as fast [...]

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Andrew Maynard is…

A professor and scientist with an unhealthy interest in the dark side – policy, communication and all that. When not writing and talking about science and technology, he chairs the University of Michigan Environmental Health Sciences Department and directs the UM Risk Science Center. More...
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A personal blog about science and technology in the 21st century. Written by Andrew Maynard it tackles some of the knottier questions raised by science and technology, such as “where is technology innovation taking us?”, “what is the role of science in society?” and “how can science and technology be developed responsibly?” More…
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