Scientific Progress

I am a scientist and what amazes me is the anti-science movement occuring in many western countries. The Creationist or "Intelligent Design" proponents distort and degrade science. Science - which MUST be objective - is slowly being replaced by pseudo-science for mass consumption.

In the decades following World War II we saw an explosion of scientific advance such that my Grandfather was born (1915) in a world without anti-biotics, without passenger aircraft or jet aircraft etc. The only anaesthetics were ether, chloroform and N2O. He almost died from a bacterial infection at 20. Cancer was an immediate death sentence. He died in a world astonishingly different - man had landed on the moon! (A gigantic milestone) - planes could fly you around the world in a day. Up till the last 10 years I think most people in the scientific community believed scientific progress was exponential and the massive progress over my grandfather's life would be much greater over mine. Now I believe there is a marked slowdown in scientific advance - a plateau from whence we may well slide backwards. Why?

Scientists - especially the researchers in the pure sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Mathmatics) - were looked upon by society with great respect. The space race brought ordinary people to a state of awe at the accomplishments of Scientists. Fearless inquiry was - following the ancient Greeks - in vogue. Romans never had a scientific mindset cf the Greeks. They never asked nor cared why the sky was blue for example. How did we come to be and what was the nature of matter - instead they built a barbaric empire which destroyed science. It is written the Heron of Alexandria was on the verge of working with steam power! I think modern (or what we call Modern) civilizations are trying to find their place in this dichotomy - be like Rome or Athens. Scientific progress - which can only work if the people support it - or a fear campaign which lets science die.