From Guy Cox
Tom Wakeford and Jackie Haq discuss the dangers of keeping private the debate into the consequences of artificial life research (26 June, p 26).
Their article is well-intended but a little naive. Over the course of my scientific career I have encountered both big-business funded activism and pressure groups who could hold their meetings in a telephone booth, and I know from bitter experience that both are equally capable of stifling rational debate. Any meaningful discussion has to go beyond this, but Wakeford and Haq offer no solution.
Taking a sample of the population using well-developed market research techniques is an idea, but the real problem lies in informing the wider population. Scientific research should be much more widely available to the general public. In these times, when science has so much hold over our lives, it is a real failure of our education system that students can leave school without a sound grasp of scientific method.
Sydney, Australia
