Advancing science common cause
AS YOU WERE SAYING ...
Today we expect that hundreds of thousands of people will gather at more than 500 locations around the world to march for science. What started as an idea in Washington, D.C., has grown into a worldwide movement to draw attention to the importance of science in exploring and explaining our world, enhancing our daily lives and improving policymaking.
Still, some people will ask, “Why march for science?”
Science has had a profound, undeniable positive effect on all our lives. Science and its benefits are everywhere, not only at the Museum of Science or in laboratories at MIT, Harvard or Tufts universities.
Scientific research has saved millions of lives through new understanding and treatment for disease as well as improved public health through smoking cessation, drunk-driving laws, vaccination and water fluoridation. Material and engineering sciences have improved energy sources, space exploration, and bridges and roads, and enabled countless technologies and products now essential to modern lives. Social sciences have developed better ways of pairing potential donors with patients needing new kidneys and reducing infection rates in hospitals.
For the future, biomedical science is making revolutionary advances in preventing and treating illness. Researchers are exploring issues like personalized medicine and using new understanding to develop better treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s and infectious disease threats like Zika and Ebola.
Years ago, one of us (Villa-Komaroff) made a medical breakthrough as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard by developing a way to produce insulin using bacteria. This discovery has benefited millions of people with diabetes, who use insulin created with the techniques that scientists then developed.
There is nothing like realizing you have been part of a scientific discovery that will help people living with a debilitating disease. And these discoveries are only possible because of the federal investments in research that enable students and researchers to take new and interesting findings and develop them into innovations that improve human health.
Despite all of the profound benefits of science, the conditions necessary for science are eroding. Proposals to drastically decrease federal funding for scientific research and development are now being discussed.
We are marching because without strong support for science, our future is at risk. We are risking life-saving and life-improving progress if we don’t invest in and use science to improve the world around us.
Advocating for science is not just for scientists, teachers or doctors. All of us — every citizen, every voter and every policymaker — should want science to thrive. After all, when we use scientific research and evidence to inform decisions, everyone benefits.
The Boston March for Science takes place on Boston Common beginning at 1 p.m. today. Rush Holt, a physicist, is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Lydia Villa-Komaroff is a molecular and cellular biologist with a doctorate from MIT and co-founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.
There is nothing like realizing you have been part of a discovery that helps people living with a debilitating disease. And these discoveries are only possible with federal funds.