APRIL
The title "Science and the Public" explains itself really. The students are now getting towards the end of Part A of the course and they have looked at a series of case studies that focus on how science and technology impact on our everyday lives. The case studies have covered issues we are all familiar with in the news such as power lines and cancer and genetic testing, along with events that are less likely to impact on our everyday lives such as predicting eruptions at volcanoes. Each of the 10 case studies in Part A draw out a different aspect of the relationship between science and the public. By now students will be finding common threads which will point them towards Part B where they will be dealing with more abstract concerns such as public perceptions of risk, science communication and the moral responsibility of scientists. In Part C students will concentrate upon the Public Understanding of Science (PUS) as an academic subject and various debates within this field.

Most students on S802 have a background in science and one of the biggest challenges of this course is for students to deconstruct their ideas about science and to rethink them through their study of science and its role in society. This process includes embracing new areas of thought they may not have considered before such as the philosophy of science and the sociology of science.