In an academic community like Princeton, it’s expected that we’re pretty fluent in the humanities. This carries through life for us, assuming that we still fraternize with people of similar college backgrounds and intellectual interests. But while we remain consistently attached to the humanities, we face a terrible illiteracy in the sciences. We care very much about understanding the motives and trends of the American and French revolutions, but it’s perfectly acceptable to not understand why the iconic planetary model of the atom is incorrect or why water doesn’t mix with oil.
How much does it matter whether we leave through FitzRandolph Gate with integrals, photons and formulas floating around in our heads? I would say, at least for future policymakers, a lot. Unfortunately for science and technology, a large proportion of policymakers were trained solely in the humanities. While most members of Congress are either former lawyers or former businessmen, very few used to be practicing doctors, engineers or scientists. Last year, The New York Times ran an article on three physicists in Congress (including our own district’s congressman, Democratic Rep. Rush Holt) and the frustration they faced when dealing with science issues. The few scientists in Congress who could understand how electronic voting machines could be easily hacked noted how that problem flew past the other members of Congress.
Often, policymakers will be faced with decisions regarding issues that contain scientific aspects, like stem cells, space exploration, global warming and scientific research in general. Despite the science, policymakers often view such issues in only ethical, moral or economic terms. The opinions of scientific experts are ignored far more often than they should be.
Further, the scientific illiteracy of policymakers can prevent funding for scientific research from even reaching the voting floor. Game theory research was almost stopped once because a congressman assumed it was related to sports instead of behavior and economics. Another congressman almost shot down research for asynchronous-transfer mode (ATM), related to electronic communications, because he thought it was the responsibility of the banking industry to do research on ATMs.
As technology becomes increasingly important in our society, we need policymakers who have the capacity to understand the science behind medical therapies or the technology of robots in combat and warfare. There are scientific questions that need to be addressed, just as there are ethical. Just as important as policymakers who understand differing philosophies on human rights are policymakers who can understand different branches of science. Bringing scientists into our establishments of law is one solution, but another solution is to better train future policymakers in the sciences.
Assuming that many future policymakers are current Princetonians, Princeton itself needs to do its part to improve science education for its undergrads. The promise of a liberal arts education is hidden by courses that are an excuse for an ST. Because of their ease, we give them unofficial, popular course titles, like “E-mails for Females” (COS 109: Computers in Our World) and “Stars for Stoners” (AST 203: The Universe). There is the requirement that all students should graduate from Princeton with the ability to write well, and we have writing seminars to fulfill that goal. To ensure that all students graduate with a decent understanding of scientific ideas, we need to improve our requirements.
The current exposure that many students receive from taking their ST or QR requirement is very limiting and doesn’t grant students a true scientific perspective. President Tilghman herself is a molecular biologist, among many administrators with science backgrounds, and the adminstration should investigate our curricular requirements. Improving the scientific backgrounds of our graduates is a must. Not all of us will become policymakers, but as a whole we’ll have a greater respect for science and its role in public policy. Perhaps one day in academic circles it’ll be equally embarrassing to be unaware of the hydrogen bonding of water and the Van der Waals interactions of oil as it is to have “The Canterbury Tales” and “Paradise Lost” fly over your head.
Ben Chen is a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Los Altos, Calif. He can be reached at bc@princeton.edu.
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