1 of 10
Dawn Starin
2 of 10
Dawn Starin
3 of 10
Dawn Starin
4 of 10
Dawn Starin
5 of 10
Dawn Starin
6 of 10
Dawn Starin
7 of 10
Dawn Starin
8 of 10
Dawn Starin
9 of 10
Dawn Starin
10 of 10
Dawn Starin
The 47th global annual Earth Day celebrations in London began outside two of the world’s citadels of science – the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Thousands of people, some scientists, some science enthusiasts, some future scientists peacefully and politely wound their way through the streets of London for science.
Along the way they passed Imperial College, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, and 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister, Theresa Mary May. As they marched, they chanted: “What do we want? Evidence-based policy. When do we want it? After peer review” and “Hey ho, hey ho, ignorance has got to go” and perhaps, a tad accurately, “Science – good at asking questions. Not so good at slogans.”
Ending up at Parliament Square, a common site of protest against national and international action and inaction, physicists, medics, epidemiologists, geneticists, astronomers, chemists, engineers, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, geologists and all the other ologists, science aficionados, grandparents, parents, and children from many different countries all settled down to listen to speeches by scientists, entertainers and journalists.
“Science – good at asking questions. Not so good at slogans.”
John Butterworth, a professor of physics at UCL, author of “Most Wanted Particle” and one of the over 6,000 people who discovered the Higgs boson, explained that science has given us both great benefits and great responsibilities and while “it will not make moral and political choices for us, or tell us what our goals should be, it will help delineate the possibilities for achieving them in the real world. In that sense, and others, science is indeed political. And vital.”
The comedian, writer and host of the scientific podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince, told the crowd that “Science never ends. There’s no child here who will ever hear the words, ‘that’s science. Finished.’”
The speakers, cheered on by a good-natured crowd, emphasized the need to reach out to the public and explain why evidence-based science is necessary, the need for funding, the need to discern facts from fiction, the need for cross-border cooperation and collaboration, and the very basic need to never stop asking ‘WHY?’.
Never stop asking ‘WHY?’
While all of the speakers agreed it was the responsibility of scientists to explain to the public why science matters, Angela Saini, author of Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking Over the World and the forthcoming Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the New Research That's Rewriting The Story, reminded the crowd that “it’s not enough to demand that science be taken more seriously. Those inside science have a responsibility to make sure that what they’re doing is seen to be free of prejudice.”
Both the organizers and, presumably, the participants saw today’s journey in London as a way to recognize and celebrate science. And, like so many celebrations, this one ended with a song—the Galaxy song from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
At the end, I watched the participants gather up their placards and wander off, some across the river Thames, some across the road to gaze through the gates of the Houses of Parliament, and some to walk past Westminster Abbey where many of the titans of science are buried, including Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Ernest Rutherford, John Herschel, and Charles Lyell.
I couldn’t help but feel encouraged and inspired but also a bit baffled and more than a bit annoyed as I considered the question: Why, in the year 2017, 383 years after Galileo was convicted for heresy and 92 years after the Scopes Trial, must concerned citizens stage a massive, world-wide protest to defend the legitimacy of evidence-based science?
Queue up Monty Python: