As one of Canada’s leading scientific researchers, Nobel Laureate John Polanyi will be heading to Sweden this week to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Nobel Prize.
Polanyi received international acclaim for winning the Nobel medal in Chemistry in 1986. His research uses lasers to probe the fundamental mechanisms of chemical reactions. But Polanyi has been an outspoken critic of corporate influence in academia and the use of research for unethical purposes.
On the eve of his trip, while busily trying to organize his schedule, Professor Polanyi briefly spoke to the Varsity about the roles of science in society. He began by discussing objectivity in science. “In science we approach the truth, but we never achieve it. Our scientific views are more than observations. Our views are embedded in the life we live, in culture.”
He stated in an article he wrote a few years ago that “real science…never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to achieve it. It is civilizing because it puts the truth ahead of all else, including personal or national interests.”
He explained that scientists have a special role in society because they possess a special form of literacy. “It takes the form of numeracy and an acquaintance with what, in more innocent times, was called ‘the scientific method.'” According to Polanyi, this form of literacy is a special privilege given to scientists by society. “Scientists should therefore participate in shaping public opinion,” he says, “but [they should] not have the right to dictate it.”
He feels that scientists have a duty to speak out against unethical uses of research. He uses the term “culture of science” to explain that scientists are a community that strives for truthfulness and accuracy. “Scientists do their work as [part of] an international community, a community that shares ideas, ethics, and the search for truth. Therefore, science has to be tolerant. Science would be dead if it was not tolerant because searching for the truth means seeing the experience of others, which is called tolerance. If we are tolerant we…respect other people, and the notion of enemy would not exist.”
For Polanyi, the scientific community has to be open and tolerant to different views and ideas inside its own disciplines.
“This brings me back to where we started about the topic of objectivity. There is an unwritten law of science, that if your views as a scientist are not accepted, you are banned and disqualified from the community, which is quite harsh punishment.”
Apart from teaching and researching at U of T, Polanyi is at the forefront of campaigning against weapons of mass destruction. He is an outspoken critic of the National Missile Defense System, which the Bush administration is trying to implement. “The National Missile Defense System is totally abhorrent. It provides a philosophical argument for terrorism. This Missile Defense System [itself] comes under the definition of terrorism: [its] intent is to kill civilians. This will not get rid of terrorism; we need to base security on something else.”
In his concluding remarks he said that he will be present in Stockholm this week, alongside all living Nobel Laureates, where he is hoping to release a political statement. “We are in a time where we have [a] strong political conscience now more then ever. I am working with my colleagues in releasing a statement on the state of the world and where the world is heading and where it should go in the next decades.”
