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Europe needs to develop scientific edge in future
By Helga Nowotny |
June 8, 2012, Friday
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WHEREAS China, India, and others have enjoyed continuing economic growth and investment in research and innovative capacity, Europe is perceived as being on the brink of decline.
Europe seems intent on ignoring its persistent strengths, which lie in Europe's science base, part of the cultural heritage that shapes European identity.
In order to understand what science can do for Europe, it is important to clarify what science cannot do for Europe: deliver results that can immediately be commercialized. Frontier research, like innovation, is an inherently uncertain process.
Any short-term economic benefits are welcome by-products, not the main "deliverables" that can be planned.
Instead, cutting-edge research pioneers new ways of working, which require novel skills and knowledge that will diffuse widely into society and transform production and services. For example, it could lead to more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient uses of natural resources, or to investment in services that are more responsive to human needs and better attuned to human interaction.
Science is the only civic institution with a built-in long-term time horizon - a feature that builds confidence in a fragile future. Modern science began in Europe 300 years ago with relatively few people - perhaps no more than a thousand when the putative scientific revolution was in full swing.
They began to engage in the systematic inquiry of how the natural world (and to a lesser extent, the social world) functioned. They obtained new knowledge of how to manipulate and intervene in natural processes. The experimental practices that they invented spread beyond the laboratories. Later, they began to underpin and merge with progress in the crafts to drive forward the Industrial Revolution.
Science and technology mutually reinforce each other, and both percolate through the social fabric. This was the case in 1700, and it remains true today.
Let us now look forward towards the future. According to health statistician Hans Rosling, our planet will probably be home to at least 9 billion people by 2050.
Six billion will live in Asia, one billion in Africa, 1.5 billion in the Americas, and 500 million in Europe. By ensuring that the pursuit of new knowledge remains a priority, Europe can safeguard the scientific revolution and retain a leading edge globally, despite having fewer people than other regions.
Europe's scientific institutions are already adapting to new global challenges. People working within science and people working with science - ordinary citizens - will assure that the unending quest for human betterment continues to be an important part of European identity. Science alone will not save Europe. Rather, a Europe that knows how to put its science to work will not need to be saved.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2012.www.project-syndicate.org. Shanghai Daily edited and condensed the article.
Europe seems intent on ignoring its persistent strengths, which lie in Europe's science base, part of the cultural heritage that shapes European identity.
In order to understand what science can do for Europe, it is important to clarify what science cannot do for Europe: deliver results that can immediately be commercialized. Frontier research, like innovation, is an inherently uncertain process.
Any short-term economic benefits are welcome by-products, not the main "deliverables" that can be planned.
Instead, cutting-edge research pioneers new ways of working, which require novel skills and knowledge that will diffuse widely into society and transform production and services. For example, it could lead to more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient uses of natural resources, or to investment in services that are more responsive to human needs and better attuned to human interaction.
Science is the only civic institution with a built-in long-term time horizon - a feature that builds confidence in a fragile future. Modern science began in Europe 300 years ago with relatively few people - perhaps no more than a thousand when the putative scientific revolution was in full swing.
They began to engage in the systematic inquiry of how the natural world (and to a lesser extent, the social world) functioned. They obtained new knowledge of how to manipulate and intervene in natural processes. The experimental practices that they invented spread beyond the laboratories. Later, they began to underpin and merge with progress in the crafts to drive forward the Industrial Revolution.
Science and technology mutually reinforce each other, and both percolate through the social fabric. This was the case in 1700, and it remains true today.
Let us now look forward towards the future. According to health statistician Hans Rosling, our planet will probably be home to at least 9 billion people by 2050.
Six billion will live in Asia, one billion in Africa, 1.5 billion in the Americas, and 500 million in Europe. By ensuring that the pursuit of new knowledge remains a priority, Europe can safeguard the scientific revolution and retain a leading edge globally, despite having fewer people than other regions.
Europe's scientific institutions are already adapting to new global challenges. People working within science and people working with science - ordinary citizens - will assure that the unending quest for human betterment continues to be an important part of European identity. Science alone will not save Europe. Rather, a Europe that knows how to put its science to work will not need to be saved.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2012.www.project-syndicate.org. Shanghai Daily edited and condensed the article.
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