Science Matters

Posted on January 10, 2012  Comments (0)

Google is a company that values science. The Google magazine, Think Quarterly, has an interesting interview with Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN: The Light Fantastic. He discusses, among other things the recent experimental results that seemed to indicate neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light:

“The world is moving so quickly that people are asking for answers when we don’t have the question yet,” Professor Heuer admits. Even worse, in this economic climate, “They are asking, ‘Why do we need science? We should take care of our immediate problems first.’ But if people in past decades had thought that way, we wouldn’t have the society we have today. Everything depends on science – this is what we need to communicate to people. I think it’s working because the general public is realizing not just how fascinating science can be, but what can come out of science in terms of knowledge and, at some stage, the betterment of society.”

The answer, perhaps, lies in rediscovering the roots of science – in using the FTL [Faster than Light] breakthrough to go back to the future. “I want to encourage the interest of artists in our work,” the professor reveals. “After all, at the very beginning, art and science started as the same thing. Bring them back together and the public might say, ‘Oh, this is how you can see science.’ Once people start talking about it, you have progress in understanding and accepting it.”

Related: Larry Page on How to Change the World (2008)Science Serving Society, Speech Australian Minister for InnovationEnergy Secretary Steve Chu and Google CEO Speak On Funding Science Research

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