[Leica] OT (very) The Great Prostate Debate: Does ScreeningSaveLives?: Scientific American And a bit more to think about

[benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)]

As a scientist I see this all the time.  The percentage of people in
Australia who are taught science is dropping, and by some measures how
well they are taught it has decreased too.  Society is returning to
belief based systems, but those individuals still personally have very
high expectations from science for them personally, without
understanding it at all.  When I speak to public groups about, for
instance, the impossibility of eradicating an invasive seaweed from a
Port, they make all sorts of comments about genetic approaches, manual
removal, chemical and biological control to achieve eradication,
usually without understanding that the kind of technology they're
suggesting doesn't exist in animal science or human medicine
(typically at the forefront of genetic intervention) or that the other
approaches would be prohibitively expensive and unlikely to succeed
anyway.  I get similar comments wherever I go and whoever I speak to,
so it's widespread, not isolated.  I'd hate to be a medical doctor in
this sort of social climate.

Marty