Science itself is being questioned: CSIRO

5 Sep 2012, 3:51 pm   -   Source: AAP

The head of the CSIRO says scientists risk being drowned out by online doubters who make informed public debate more difficult.

Scientists need to communicate with the Australian public to be heard above the voices challenging their research, the head of the national science agency says.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) chief executive Dr Megan Clark says scientists these days are working in a "fundamentally different" environment that makes it difficult for them to properly inform public debate.

Scientists whose work was subject to peer reviewing and vigorous benchmarks for integrity were being challenged by research posted online that met no such standards, she said.

While that was not such a major problem in Australia, in America science was coming under attack.

"We are in a world where science itself is being questioned," Dr Clark told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

"Scientific evidence is often referred to as a theory, as if a theory is something to be doubted."

Science has faced a formidable opponent in the USA, where the creationism movement is lobbying for theories of evolution to be banned from some school curriculums.

But in Australia, despite fierce debate around climate science dominating airwaves, there is still a healthy demand for well-informed information about the issues affecting the country.

"We really see a responsibility as an organisation like ours to make sure that information is out there to the Australian people," Dr Clark said.

"What's quite refreshing, at least in our Australian context, the public are responding by saying we want more of this."

She said the CSIRO was taking a step back to ensure it was clearly communicating with the Australian public about the issues "they need to hear about".

For example, Dr Clark said every two years the CSIRO in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology released its State of the Nation's Climate report to set an agenda for informed debate.

In her address, Dr Clark also called for greater trust and collaboration with science agencies across Asia to boost breaking innovation and research back home.

She praised the culture of scientific innovation in Australia and its string of inventions, such as fire-resistant clothing, wireless technology and polymer bank notes.

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