Science Under Attack: Has the Public Lost Faith in Scientists?

In this documentary originally broadcast on the BBC's Horizon series, Paul Nurse—president of Britain's Royal Society and a Nobel Prize winner—examines why so much of the public refuses to accept the results of scientific research despite the fact that the modern world was basically created by science. Although Nurse touches upon several illustrative issues—resistance to vaccines, opposition to genetically altered foods, doubts about the cause of HIV—his emphasis is on the widespread rejection of the concept of climate change or global warming. Nurse interviews Fred Singer, one of the relatively few scientists who are skeptical of the theory, but he concentrates on what has come to be called the “Climategate” scandal, in which hacked laboratory e-mails were alleged to carry evidence of a scientific conspiracy to manipulate evidence in support of global warming. Nurse interviews not only the researchers at the center of the controversy to demonstrate that the correspondence was, in fact, misunderstood, but also James Delingpole, one of the journalists who publicized the accusations most vigorously (he comes across here as irrationally fanatical). While Nurse finds fault with press sensationalism, he closes by emphasizing the responsibility of scientists to better explain their methods to the public. A reasonable, persuasive—even humble—presentation that also pays tribute to the great scientific minds of the past through a visit to the archives of the Royal Society, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)