New Science Forum Aims at Political, Industry Leaders

Citing the “growing importance in the relationship between science and the future of mankind,” an international group of scientists is creating an annual forum intended to bring together academics, researchers, legislators, business leaders, and journalists to discuss controversial science and technology issues such as human cloning and global warming. The Science and Technology for Society Forum, the idea of Japan’s former science minister Koji Omi, is based on the notion that in-depth, inclusive discussions of science-based issues are needed if societies expect to move intelligently into the future.

“Health, meeting energy needs, and other aspects of human welfare are dependent on continued progress in science and technology,” Omi said in announcing the creation of the forum at a 9 September meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The benefits of science and technology are great, he said, but they are not reaching “a part of the world’s people.” The advance of science and technology “raises important ethical, safety, and environmental issues, [and] possible negative applications are threatening mankind’s own future.”

Bruce Alberts, president of the NAS, said the forum will take on a handful of problems each year. Its goals will include having small, issue-oriented working groups make specific proposals and policy recommendations. “It’s important that we do more than just talk,” Alberts said. The NAS is a founding sponsor of the forum.

MIT physicist Jerome Friedman, a member of the US group supporting the forum, said the idea is to create a venue where “the scientists don’t only speak to themselves, they speak to a broader society, to industry people, policymakers, the people who really take positions on these issues. There haven’t been many vehicles for this because people really just speak at one another in most situations and never really discuss the issues. The idea here is to try to listen to everybody and try to understand what the points of view are, and try to have the best science that can be brought to the discussion.”

The scientists must also listen, Friedman said. “There are always policy issues which go beyond science. Scientists have no better handle on policy decisions than anybody else. I mean, after all, we’re just citizens.” The first meeting of the forum is set for 14 November 2004 in Kyoto, Japan. Omi wants the invitees to “participate not as representatives of their country or organization, but as individuals to express their own views.”