Collegiate Times

Questioning the value or usefulness of science may be the closest thing the modern world has to heresy.

In a world of continuous scientific progress and technological ubiquity, it can be difficult to properly gauge the extent of science's effect on society outside of isolated, high profile, contentious issues.

As easy as it can be to get lost in the weeds of stem cell research or cloning, Virginia Tech's Department of Science and Technology in Society looks to demystify that very matter.

"STS examines the effect science has on society and vice-versa," said philosophy professor Joe Pitt, who works with the STS program. "We examine how scientific knowledge is generated, (and) whether we're justified in that knowledge."

STS is an interdisciplinary program, examining science and technology's effect on society from a variety of perspectives - history, philosophy, sociology and other fields not usually associated with science to create a more complete picture.

"STS is an interdisciplinary arena as opposed to a scientific discipline, which is defined by dominant theories or approaches to its subject matter," said Gary Downey, a professor of STS. "We teach a variety of approaches to a question."

That question pertains to the interplay between scientific and technical progress on one hand and the moral, ethical and social implications of those advancements on the other.

"There's a complex interaction between what I call 'social technologies' and the generation of scientific knowledge," Pitt said. "If the National Science Foundation decides to fund one type of research and not another - that creates knowledge in one area and not the other."

That kind of interplay between the various spheres of influence creates a more complete understanding of how scientific knowledge is created and how it affects human society.

"As an arena, (STS is) defined more by a problem, a question and people come to it - both with different topical interests and different theoretical expertise," Downey said. "In part, the field follows trends. For example, it used to be the case that physics was the dominant science and now genetics is dominant."

The fields of inquiry used within the STS program can be as broad as the environmental effects of new technologies and bioethics to the history of science within Medieval Islam - an approach taken by one STS student.

"My area gives us a window into the lost, so-called "Golden Age" of Islamic scientific revival in the 7th through the 12th centuries," said Najma Yousefi, an STS Ph.D. student. "Helping to understand that can help us understand the inferiority complex in the Arab and Muslim mind when they compare themselves to the West."

Doris Zallen, another STS professor and a former geneticist, agreed with Downey's assessment of STS' mission and method.

"The goal in STS is to be a part of the evaluation; we can provide a balance to the scientists," Zallen said. "In the long run, it's good for scientists to hear these other trained voices who are experienced at looking at the impact of science on society and society on science."

The intersection of these worlds is an inevitable result and needs to be studied and, where possible, addressed, Downey said.

"We argue that in a scientific or technical arena, there are always non-technical dimensions," Downey said. "For those people who are trained in the sciences or engineering, those dimensions are seen to be irritations, but we take them and assert they are key constituent elements of the problems that are being addressed."

Downey said that interplay does indeed work both ways, with social interest being a principal informant as to what areas concern contemporary STS most.

That two-way approach can be very informative in fully understanding the scientific disciplines.

"When we ask, 'What is science?' we can't simply say, 'What scientists do' because scientists raise children, they teach." Pitt said. "Scientists petition for more money, they have power plays; there's internal politics that affect how and what kinds of scientific knowledge they generate."

Even STS is affected by the human interest factor in society.

"STS as a field follows societal issues," Downey said. "If we're going to solve a problem, we have to know what society considers a problem."

Zallen said it's important not to misunderstand STS; it's not an attempt to find fault with science itself.

"I think scientists want to do the right thing, they want to help, and basically there's always a sense that this will be useful to others and an ethical intent," Zallen said.

Continue Reading: 123 Next »