GOVERNING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN A DEMOCRACY

Academia's agrumentative response to a perceived crisis in scientific and technologic governance, by 12 scientists. Should the scientific governance function fall on the public? Or, as some prominent insiders contend, would that pervert a proven system, i.e., one that is guided jointly by governmental and scientific contingents? The dozen contributors explore this and other topics that exemplify the curious interrelationships between science, technology and their responsible governance. This conflict, which dates back to the era of Francis Bacon, has some of its more basic components enumerated here and placed in clearer perspective. Questions relating to public duty, conflicts of interest, the role of entrepreneurs, to name a few, are systematically approached, discussed and often challenged. This often esoteric gem does make a concerted attempt to clarify a murky scientific and philosophic ideal upon which rests the future of technologic growth. But the book is not addressed to a public casually interested in debating scientific and democratic ideology.