Anti-science culture is growing, say Nobel Laureates
This is an excerpt of an article that appeared in The Indian Express. Read the full story here.
Nobel Laureates Serge Haroche (Physics 2012), Harold Varmus (Medicine 1989), William E Moerner (Chemistry 2014) in New Delhi on Thursday. Harikrishnan Nair
Raising the alarm against the “rising trend of populism”, and taking on critics of the scientific method, three Nobel Laureates have warned that there will be serious repercussions if the anti-science movement is not defeated. William E Moerner (Chemistry, 2014), Harold Varmus (Medicine, 1989) and Serge Haroche (Physics, 2012) said that those who are anti-science are growing at a fast pace, and that engagement, education and encouragement were the only ways to push back.
Moerner, Varmus, and Haroche were in Delhi Thursday to attend the Nobel Prize Series—India Programme 2017, a conference organized by Nobel Media AB, Sweden, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology. “No one has been listening to the scientific community for the past several weeks,” said Varmus, who had campaigned in 2008 for President Barack Obama and was the head of the National Institutes of Health in the US.
Varmus said that he was “less than enthused” about the new administration under Donald Trump, who has denied climate change and threatened to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
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“Today, people talk about anecdote over science. They will believe what ‘someone they know’ has told them over what science has proved. The business of conspiracy theories is huge,” said Varmus.
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