Science communication and ethics
In a nutshell
Scientists must communicate their findings in accessible and unbiased manner. Scientists' advice may not always be in line with society's ethics.
Spreading information
Scientists have a responsibility to communicate their discoveries to people. This allows the public, government and health professionals to make more well-informed decisions.
Example
Penicillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered and paved the way for more antibiotics to be developed. Antibiotics are drugs which treat bacterial infections by inhibiting the growth of bacteria and/or killing bacteria. The discovery and development of antibiotics has helped treat many serious illnesses and prevent deaths.
Bias
Developments in science may be reported in a biased way. This means that the data is presented in a way that does not consider all sides of an argument. Bias involves:
- Omission of data that contradicts the scientist's argument.
- Oversimplified interpretations of scientific data.
Bias can lead to misunderstanding of scientific data, which may cause the public, government and health professionals to make ill-informed decisions.
Potential issues
Implementation of scientific advice can be difficult, due to social, economic and environmental issues.
Social issues
| Issues related to society (people in a community)
|
Economic issues | Issues related to money |
Environmental issues | Issues related to the environment |
Example
Issues with renewable energy resources.
Social | Installation of inventions, such as wind turbines, may disrupt people's livelihoods due to the noise and change in scenery. |
Economic | It can be expensive to install beneficial inventions, such as wind turbines.
|
Environmental | Biofuel was invented as an environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. However, production of biofuel involves deforestation, which is bad for the environment.
|
Ethics
Ethical issues are related to people's morals.
Example
The drug development process usually involves animal testing, which some people disagree with. Others believe that human life is more precious than animal life so it is acceptable to test drugs on animals for the purpose of treating human illnesses.
Some people believe that the ethics of animal testing depends on:
- The severity of the human illness that the drug is being tested for
- The conditions in which the animals are being experimented on
- Whether or not animal testing is being used as a last resort
- Whether or not alternative methods would provide the same information as animal testing
