Catégorie : Science

In the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci refused to publish plans for a submarine, because he anticipated that it would be used as a weapon. In the 17th century, for similar reasons, Boyle kept secret a poison he had developed. In 1946 Leo Szilard, who had been one of the key developers of the atomic bomb, quit physics in disillusionment over the ways in which the government had used his work. By and large this kind of resistance on the part of scientists to the misuse of their research has been very sporadic, from isolated individuals, and generally in opposition only to particular, unusually repugnant projects. As such it has been ineffective. If scientists want to help prevent socially destructive applications of science, they must forego acting in an ad hoc or purely moralistic fashion and begin to respond collectively from the vantage point of a political and economic analysis of their work. This analysis must be firmly anchored in an understanding of the American corporate state.

We will argue below that science is inevitably political, and in the context of contemporary American corporate capitalism, that it contributes greatly to the exploitation and oppression of most of the people both in this country and abroad. We will call for a re-orientation of scientific work and will suggest ways in which scientific workers can re-direct their research to further meaningful social change.

Extrait de Toward A Science for the People, Bill Zimmerman, Len Radinsky, Mel Rothenberg and Bart Meyers, 1972.

Beneath the white coat: the radical science movement, Alice Bell, Political Science blog, hosted by the Guardian, 2013-07-18.

A Partial Archive of Science for the People (Anciens numéros, manifestes, etc).

« Launched over 35 years ago, Voyagers 1 and 2 are on an epic journey outward from the Sun to reach the boundary between the solar plasma and the much cooler interstellar medium. The boundary, called the heliopause, is expected to be marked by a large increase in plasma density, from about 0.002 cm−3 in the outer heliosphere, to about 0.1 cm−3 in the interstellar medium. On 9 April 2013, the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument began detecting locally generated electron plasma oscillations at a frequency of about 2.6 kHz. This oscillation frequency corresponds to an electron density of about 0.08 cm−3, very close to the value expected in the interstellar medium. These and other observations provide strong evidence that Voyager 1 has crossed the heliopause into the nearby interstellar plasma. »

En d'autres termes, Voyageur 1 est officiellement le premier objet que nous avons fabriqué à avoir quitter le système solaire.

Je dois dire qu'avec le recul que ce genre de nouvelles me donne, il y a beaucoup d'autre choses fabriqués par l'humanité que j'aimerais voir suivre le même chemin, non pour des motifs scientifiques, mais pour des raisons politiques.

Gurnett, Kurth, Burlaga and Ness, In Situ Observations of Interstellar Plasma With Voyager 1, Science, 2013. < http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/09/11/science.1241681.abstract >

Billet de Giuseppe Longo sur les prédictions en science et les prétentions de pouvoir prédictif en finance.

« These audacious and once fruitful bets on a foreseeable future, in a mastered list of possibilities, have now become the pure transfer of richness towards the richest, by the refined mathematics of finance »