J. C. Argüelles

Argüelles, J. C.

Hemeroteca Cientifica Catalana

OPINIONJ.C. Argu¨ellesScience and culturePublished online: 28 May 2002 Springer-Verlag and SEM 2002Who can deﬁne exactly what the term ‘‘culture’’ means?Intuitively, everybody understands to what it refers;nevertheless, conveying its meaning into words is a mostcomplex task. Dictionaries give several meanings to thisterm, including ‘‘the act of developing the intellectualand moral faculties especially by education’’ and ‘‘ac-quaintance with and taste in ﬁne arts, humanities, andbroad aspects of science as distinguished from voca-tional and technical skills’’ [Merriam Webster’s Colle-giate Dictionary, 10th edn (1995) Merriam-Webster,Springﬁeld, Mass.]. Academic deﬁnitions, however, tendto be stiﬀ and hardly ever satisfactory. I prefer a deﬁ-nition that has been embedded in my memory since Iﬁrst heard it: ‘‘Culture is what remains once you forgetwhat you learnt.’’ It is the remains or residues thatpersist in some hidden corner of your brain challengingthe ravages of time and oblivion. To a great extent,cultural background determines one’s behavior and theguidelines that one follows in life.At ﬁrst sight, it seems as if the term ‘‘culture’’ issynonymous with ‘‘deep learning’’. Accordingly, themost learned people should be the most cultivated. I donot think so, however. The acquisition of one’s culturalbackground has hardly anything to do with the titaniceﬀort which is needed to master the burden of memory-related, unnecessary, dogmatic information with whichyoung students are crammed. Unfortunately, increas-ingly demanding examinations do not correspond withan assessment of either the value of intelligence or theability to reason. In fact, the foundations of an appro-priate cultural background rely mostly on the develop-ment of other, more gratifying qualities. These includethe selected reading of masterpieces of the literature, thepleasure of looking at the historical human legacy madeup of architecture and other art works, the delight oflistening to sublime music created by ingenious com-posers, and maybe to be aware of the latest trends inphilosophy and economics. But what about being awareof the latest scientiﬁc discoveries?Traditionally, scientiﬁc knowledge was not a part of acultural background. The negative perception that so-ciety has of science has contributed to this circumstance.The archetypal respectful intellectual was someone witha humanistic background – literature, philosophy arts,and maybe even law; knowledgeable in social and po-litical aﬀairs; able to have an inﬂuence on certain mat-ters and trends of his time. In addition, the intellectualmight be – and in fact he would be so – completelyilliterate in scientiﬁc matters. In some countries, in-cluding Spain, well-respected intellectuals despised re-search. Sentences such as ‘‘let the others invent’’ or ‘‘ inSpain, doing research means crying’’ are the clear re-ﬂection of such a contemptuous attitude. The classicalimage of the venerable scholar researcher has persisted.Nowadays most media still separate ‘‘cultural’’ from‘‘scientiﬁc’’ items, based on the assumption that cultureand science deal with diﬀerent matters.The great scientiﬁc, technical revolution, with noprecedent in history, which has marked the developmentof the twentieth century, has reversed the establishedorder. The application of scientiﬁc advancements hasgreatly changed everyday life, especially in the so-calleddeveloped Western world. Science is no longer the jobnor the hobby of a few eccentric, half-lunatic geniusesspending their time dealing with absurd matters, unin-telligible to the profane. Their work was observed bytheir coevals with curiosity, if not with concern aboutthe danger that such crazy minds could generate. Morethan frequently, scientiﬁc discoveries have not been ap-preciated in their proper context, and the lives of therespective discoverers have passed unnoticed. Others,less fortunate have been persecuted and condemnedbecause they put the established values at risk.A list of inventions and ﬁndings of the last centurythat have originated from new scientiﬁc ideas could beInt Microbiol (2002) 5: 95–96DOI 10.1007/s10123-002-0069-9J.C. Argu¨ellesA´rea de Microbiologı´a, Facultad de Biologı´a,Universidad de Murcia, SpainE-mail: arguelle@correo.um.esTel.:+34-968367131Fax:+34-968363963interminable; but electricity, photography and cinema,the telephone, the car, the airplane, household appli-ances, and the computer, must be mentioned. Basicconceptual advancements have led to speciﬁc applica-tions including new surgical and diagnostic techniques,the progress of optics and of nuclear physics, and theindustrial production of antibiotics and other essentialbiological products. Although superﬁcially unrelated,the contribution of science has been decisive in theestablishment of a new economic and social order. Thecontrol of infectious diseases has contributed to a de-crease in the birth rate and the subsequent incorpo-ration of women into the labor force. The availabilityof more eﬃcient drugs and the improved quality andquantity of food have, in many countries, broughtabout higher life expectancies and the aging of thepopulation. This is a new challenge for governmentsand public health systems. In any case, we should bearin mind that the beneﬁts of applied science are limited,and that most of the world’s population is unaware ofscientiﬁc progress and continues to live in extremelypoor conditions. These enormous diﬀerences are theultimate causes of serious hostilities around the worldand increasing international terrorism. Furthermore,the perverse use of science to produce weapons ofmass destruction has provided an apocalyptic vision ofthe age-old confrontation between the rich and thepoor.Scientiﬁc knowledge must be made an essential in-gredient of people’s cultural background. In a world inwhich communication has greatly increased, where in-formation is indispensable, science cannot remain apartfrom social events. Nevertheless, the consequences ofscientiﬁc progress have been more obvious in people’sday-to-day lives than in their ways of thinking. Publicopinion maintains – to a great extent – a hostile, re-served attitude regarding science. And this opinion ismainly a result of scientiﬁc illiteracy. Several surveyscarried out in the United States during the 1990s con-cluded that a signiﬁcant part of the population remainedignorant of issues such as the origin of life, the nature ofthe mechanisms of biological inheritance, nuclear fusion,and the mode of action of antibiotics.Scientists must assume part of the responsibility forsuch extensive illiteracy. Their often cold, distant attitudehas created a culture broth consisting of a mixture ofskepticism and the ready acceptance of popular super-stition as fact. Science advances at an accelerated rhythm,revealing new horizons but also raising serious ethical andlegislative concerns. Profound, signiﬁcant issues such asthe proper uses of stem cells and the human genome, andthe applications of cloning are now the focus of a debateabout which society must make a decision, based on therigorous knowledge provided by experts. Because, at theturn of the twenty-ﬁrst century, there is no doubt thatscience has become a substantial ingredient of culture.96

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