Standing up for science that challenges ignorance, power

Science became a science because it spoke truth to the ignorance that threatened human well-being.

Science also spoke truth to power, especially when that power profited from the ignorance of others.

Science — and scientists — often get criticized for this, especially when they challenge ignorance and power at the same time.

The history of science, and especially the history of biology, lies in the history of our efforts to understand infectious diseases and develop policies to combat them. Many modern methods of science first appeared during battles to control infectious diseases and save lives.

Societies develop public policies in response to challenges they face. They base policies on their understanding of a challenge and its cause. Get the hypothesis to explain the cause wrong and, the policy to confront the challenge likely will fail.

The Black Death presented 14th century European society with such a challenge. Traveling the Silk Road from Central Asia, the plague invaded Crimea in 1343 and spread to all of Europe. The inability of European policymakers to understand the pandemic’s causes led to the death of half of Europe’s population, according to some historians.

Hypotheses at the time included that the plague was the wrath of God, a “great pestilence in the air” caused by the conjunction of three planets in 1345 and acts of terrorism (poisoning of public wells) by members of ethnic groups.

Public policy based on those hypotheses, such as it was, included persecuting members of those ethnic groups and fleeing the foul air of areas rife with plague. The latter response helped spread the bacteria that caused the disease and the fleas that transmitted them from black rats to humans.

Bad science led to ineffective policies and resulted in human suffering.

Technological advances, such as the invention of the microscope in 1590, revealed the existence of the microbial world. New hypotheses focusing on microbes to explain infectious diseases eventually led to development of effective public policies to combat them. Those policies included improved hygiene and development of vaccines and antibiotics.

Science served society only when science realized that natural events such as pandemics require natural explanations. Science takes no position on the wrath of God, other than to realize it doesn’t provide insight into how to stop a raging pandemic.

Other social institutions at the time embraced the hypothesis that the wrath of God caused the Black Death. Such a hypothesis strengthened their currency, an obvious conflict of interest that put them at odds with science.

We have come a long way from the Black Death and basing public health policies on the wrath of God.

But at the same time, we still have social institutions that deny science to strengthen their currency. They create conflicts of interest among our elected policy makers, and human well-being suffers in the process.

Saturday’s March for Science in Washington and the satellite marches held in cities nationwide, including Columbus, demonstrate that many Americans support effective public policies based on sound science. They recognize that those who deny the insights of science in the formation of public policy stand to benefit from their denial of science.

As medieval as it seems, we still must defend science.