Science Is Not Doomed, Here’s Why
Ever since the start of the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century, day-to-day life and scientific knowledge have become progressively more intertwined. Despite that, the overall public’s view of scientific progress and science as a whole has started to decline steadily since the pandemic. With the introduction of the internet, false information and fraudulent articles have spread like wildfire in the last decade, leading many to be fearful for the future of science. However, science is not doomed, as illustrated by the surprising positives the internet brings and the historical patterns of scientific progress.
While there are many news articles online about the decline of scientific research and how the modern American education system, and especially the internet, is at the root of it, it’s not all bad news. “There is some evidence that frequent Internet use for information retrieval and communication is associated with the increase in publication production by scientists,” states Bruce Warden in an article by the National Institute of Health(NIH). The same article also emphasizes the importance of communication during scientific research. Communication becomes much easier with the internet at your disposal, with many modern researchers utilizing it to spread their work to both the general public and fellow researchers. Some will argue that this spreads false information just as quickly. The American Psychological Association even states that “several unique features of social media encourage viral content with low oversight.” While this can be true to a certain extent, simple fact checks and awareness of the problem can help stop this problem.
The introduction of the internet has shaken up science in a way almost no other technological advancement has. Save for one, the Gutenberg printing press. When this novel invention was unveiled to the common man, false information about everything from political affairs to scientific knowledge spread extremely quickly. Even an entire century after its introduction, the printing press still allowed false information to travel at ridiculous speeds. Many news companies took advantage of this. According to the British Broadcast Corporation, there were papers published about “fantastic animals such as unicorns, two-legged beavers and even flying bat-men!”(BBC page 1). It felt like this spreading of fraud would never end, but people began picking up on these false news articles about a century and a half later. The internet is in a very similar situation right now. Looking at this pattern, the transmission of such frauds should decrease given enough time.
While it is fun to learn about the ways science can continue to advance, it is still currently under a series of declines. This relies on your choice. When reading scientific articles, it may be best to fact-check them and warn close ones about the faulty source you read from. This can help stop the spread of false information. In the long run, you will have helped the progress and preservation of science as a whole.
