| Corruption in Science
- one of the gravest impediments toward a development of survival
in a habitable world
Thoughts presented by Konradin Kreuzer on occasion of the
GLOBAL FORUM ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT FOR SURVIVAL
Moscow, USSR 15-19 January 1990
Forum für verantwortbare Anwendung der Wissenschaft
Forum for Responsible Application of Science
gegründet 1973 in Basel Postcheck 40-4729-2 tel 0617312272
konradin.kreuzer@nux.ch
CH-4112 Flüh, and Moscow/USSR, January 1990
Reflections after 20 years experience in analysing work of public
relevance which claims to be scientific. The results are horrifying.
The amount of squeezing soi-disant scientific structures or findings
in order to satisfy predeclared demands, is incredible. Examples of
tailoring scientific results to fit those demands would fill a broad
palette. We have filled our periodical
“nux” with critical reports
of series of documented deviations from scientific integrity.
What we need, is to open the glass house of the elite of science and
make it visible to the public, expose it to public criticism. Inner
control in scientific activities - even so-called Peers’ Review
- has failed wherever investigations are done under pressure of interests
(be they money, prestige, results stipulated in advance, or all three
together).
What we want, is not teaching lay-people to understand scientific
language, and we make no popular science for a broader public. Experts
should be asked to emerge from their tiny slits and to talk about
their doings with common people in a language commonly understood.
They should be challenged to undergo questioning and critique from
outside their special job, and they are to see their work within the
context of a habitable world, and not solely from behind their blinkers.
Thus, towards greater citizen participation in the activities of “science”,
we try to build up an open discussion between lay-people and experts.
It is the “silly” questions which must be asked, because
things are then seen in terms of the network to which they belong.
Often, the “silly” questions only reveal where the deeper
sense of a given task is hidden - if there is any.
Konradin Kreuzer
The „nux“ in printed form,
editions 1-108 / 1977-2000, has been
followed by www.nux.ch as a web-site
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