science link of the day

this is a really interesting article in the bbc about prince charles's article expressing his concerns on the use of nanotechnology. but the really interesting part to me isn't really what the prince said so much is that it shows the influence that figureheads can have in society with regards to scientific matters. and it hints at how important it is for the general populace to take part in scientific debates, which i completely agree with. (that's one of the reasons i put these links up here, in the hopes that someone will read them, and they're interesting of course).

it bothers me that people might simply take a statement like the prince's at face value without looking in to the matter further. these are the kinds of statements that create a backlash against science, when sometimes the matter has simply been misundertood. i know that's a bit vague, but it's happened before. i read rachel carson's "silent spring" for a public policy class in the fall, and it is the most disturbing book i have ever read. it's amazing how long officials denied the side effects of pesticides and continued to dump them in amazing quantities and cause so much damage to the people and environment in the area. it's these kind of situations where the people don't get a voice and often don't know enough about the science to have an arguement that are so unfortunate.

anyway, i'll get off my soap box (for now) and get back to work.

Link