Existential threats our society faces: While the onset of a global pandemic should not have come as a great surprise, the chaotic federal response and the heartbreaking loss of life have shaken the faith of many in US institutions and will result in a changed nation and a very different world. Beyond this, a pandemic is only one of several potentially existential threats that we face, also including social breakdown, conflicts and crises over food and other resources, and runaway global warming. There is too little broad understanding of these threats, let alone wise, effective action to address them. It seems paradoxical that this national failure has come from a society with signal and public achievements in computing, biomedicine, technology, and physics—achievements by a scientific subculture that seems disconnected from our current political leadership and that appears irrelevant or even threatening to a disturbingly large fraction of the electorate

Blandford, Roger D.

Thorne, Kip S.

English

Caltech Authors - Main

Post-pandemic science and education
Citation: American Journal of Physics 88, 518 (2020); doi: 10.1119/10.0001390
View online: https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0001390
View Table of Contents: https://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/88/7
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
GUEST EDITORIAL
Post-pandemic science and education
(Received 25 May 2020; accepted 25 May 2020)
Existential threats our society faces: While the onset of
a global pandemic should not have come as a great surprise,
the chaotic federal response and the heartbreaking loss of
life have shaken the faith of many in US institutions and will
result in a changed nation and a very different world.
Beyond this, a pandemic is only one of several potentially
existential threats that we face, also including social break-
down, conflicts and crises over food and other resources, and
runaway global warming. There is too little broad under-
standing of these threats, let alone wise, effective action to
address them. It seems paradoxical that this national failure
has come from a society with signal and public achievements
in computing, biomedicine, technology, and physics—
achievements by a scientific subculture that seems discon-
nected from our current political leadership and that appears
irrelevant or even threatening to a disturbingly large fraction
of the electorate.
Foundations for solutions: Why this disconnect? A full
answer is far beyond the scope of this editorial. A more
important question is how can we rectify this disconnect?
How can we, as a nation, inoculate against the sugar highs of
polarizing propaganda in support of the status quo ante and
foster a healthier diet of wise choice and informed, success-
ful action? We (Blandford and Thorne, B&T) see three
essential foundations for solutions. First, we (in the US) need
more politicians with critical thinking and problem-solving
backgrounds. Second, we must change American culture so
as to facilitate broad, rational, national discussions of hard
choices, discussions informed by fact and frankness, not fic-
tion and fantasy. Third, we must grow a workforce that con-
tains the experience and competence to address the threats.
The time to begin building these foundations is now, and sci-
entists can contribute majorly. In the words of Sun Tzu, “In
the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
Political shift needed: Our nation’s manifest political fail-
ures are several. The proper roles of government—addressing
problems wisely and fostering an equitable society—have been
subsumed by the goals of acquiring and maintaining power.
The mode of thinking that dominates Washington politics
today is driven by ideology, expediency, and battles against
perceived adversaries. Decisions are rarely informed, at least
publicly, by the rational, evidence- and data-based thinking
that we try to teach our science students. This is due in part to
the backgrounds of the politicians. Too few come from
problem-solving fields like engineering, medicine, and science.
While we all can surely agree that a world run by a gang of
Sheldon Coopers would be Hell on Earth, having many more
engineers, doctors, and scientists walking the corridors of polit-
ical power would be a great improvement, not just because of
the expertise they could contribute, but through their rational
approaches to the challenges that lie ahead. More of us should
become political candidates and win elections.
Cultural shift needed: The deficiency of the political cul-
ture is really a symptom of a more fundamental problem.
Too few of us in the United States are able to understand the
difficult choices that confront us today, too few have the
ability to think through those choices rationally, and too few
even try. We should not be quick to blame this on laziness or
moral depravity; our world really has become quite complex.
The control system of Model T was simple and direct; that
of a Model S is a complicated computational marvel. The
divide between those who can deal with today’s complex
issues and the rest of society may be widening just as fast as
the better-publicized gulf between the rich and the poor.
Moreover, most experts are segregated into independent
priesthoods and cannot parse issues that extend beyond their
specialties. How much basic biology and atmospheric chem-
istry do typical physicists really understand today, let alone
citizens who have not had the benefit of a science education?
This must change.
Educational shift needed: Today is not the first time we
Americans have faced a challenge like this. In 1957, the
Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satellite. Although
the full context and the response were more nuanced, there is
no denying that societal alarm over the satellite’s beeping
signal helped trigger a major transformation in science edu-
cation in the United States, and American society benefitted
greatly. Today’s world is quite different and its threats are
more real and profound, but a similar transformation must
and can happen again.
While it is impossible to know right now the scale and
nature of what we will be facing post-Covid, we (B&T)
believe that there will be three imperatives: to transform
government, to rebuild the economy, and to make society
more equitable. Science has a critical role to play in all three
of these, as, of course, do the humanities (especially ethics).
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Science and science education: First, we scientists must
now begin to think seriously about rebuilding our nation
and society in the post-Covid era. We (B&T) believe that
science (including engineering, information technology,
and medicine), used wisely and with attention to its adap-
tive and corrective nature, must play a prominent role in
this reconstruction—not so much explicitly in the spirit of
“Scientists say that…,” but rather implicitly, as a firm basis
for public policy that is implemented by a dedicated civil
service.
Second, as science educators, we must institute a nation-
wide, crash program (as in the post-Sputnik era) to infuse
society with science-educated citizens who are imbued with
curiosity about the world around themselves and understand
the nature and power of critical thinking; citizens who have
learned to probe in search of truth and be skeptical of asser-
tions made without basis in fact; citizens who have discov-
ered how easy it is to be proved wrong; citizens who
appreciate that often the wisest among us are those who have
518 Am. J. Phys. 88 (7), July 2020 http://aapt.org/ajp VC 2020 American Association of Physics Teachers 518
made the most mistakes most rapidly in search of truth or at
least of deeper understanding; and citizens who thereby have
the tools to distinguish reliable information from propaganda
and wishful thinking. We must embark on this with humility
instead of our all-too-frequent arrogance. That arrogance—
or perceived arrogance—has contributed significantly, we
think, to a large portion of American society turning against
science and rational thinking and embracing propaganda and
wishful thinking.
One of the strongest reasons for optimism lies in the
mature and constructive response of so many young people
to today’s challenges. Many students, contemplating a scary
future, are demanding change from their seemingly compla-
cent elders, and we should be supporting them. Some of our
students will become leaders and decision makers—in govern-
ment, in business, in technology, and in society more widely.
We must ensure that they understand the power of science and
the scientific method and instinctively turn to science for guid-
ance when it is relevant. We must educate broadly this new
generation of science-literate leaders. They must see science
in action in a variety of fields and applications—pure science;
applied science; science in the everyday world of weather,
ocean waves, and earthquakes; and science in engineering and
technology—, so that they understand instinctively the breadth
of science’s power.
Expansion and revamping of science education: This
proposed expansion of science education at all levels will
require a large increase in the nation’s number of science
teachers. It is important that college curricula be changed to
reflect the needs of these new teachers. There are many
opportunities for us, as science educators, to be creative in
partnering with industry and with scientists and educators in
other countries and in schools of education.
This expansion can only happen successfully if we scien-
tists and science educators work together as a community
with common goals.
One of the few benefits of quarantining has been a broad-
ened appreciation among parents (scientists among them) for
the work of school teachers. Many university-level science
educators and research scientists, who have too often
adopted a hierarchical stance, attempting to dictate what
should be taught and how this should be achieved, now get
it. High-school and community-college science teachers
must be acknowledged more publicly for what they do and
as belonging to the same profession as research scientists.
They must be fully included as members of a community
that discovers new elementary particles, develops new types
of lasers, and formulates new curricula. Their perspective is
crucial as we all grapple with educational content and assess-
ment, outreach, and professional development in a changing
world. We research leaders can learn much by listening to
high-school teachers. We need to practice inreach as well as
outreach.
Revamping physics education: As physicists, we should
be asking how we can play our part in transforming science
education.
In elementary and middle school, our primary goal should
be to communicate as artfully as we can what science can
do; that it is neither magic nor religion but, in the words of
Thomas Huxley, “Science is nothing but trained and orga-
nized common sense.” We should not only target the stu-
dents but through them, their parents and grandparents.
In high school and beginning undergraduate instruction,
we physics educators need to teach the broad unity and
power of science. We must better integrate physics with
mathematics and engineering, biology and chemistry, medi-
cine, and computer science. However, we should never lose
sight of what makes physics distinct as a discipline, main-
taining the strong connection between fundamental princi-
ples and applications. The deeper one understands the
former, the less one has to remember about the latter, and the
easier it becomes to contribute to a new area. This is a very
different methodology from that practiced in machine learn-
ing for example; in our view, it is as important today as ever.
Physics should be seen as learning for a lifetime, like a for-
eign language, not a sequence of quizzes and exams to be
conquered and then set aside. As with learning a new lan-
guage, the sooner one starts, the better. We should also
encourage students to think for themselves about the role of
physics in a changing world and be pleased and not be sur-
prised if they come to different conclusions from ours.
We must broaden greatly physics education. One reason is to
enable our graduates to contribute effectively, as science-savvy
community members, to the restructuring that society needs in
the post-Covid era. In addition, our current narrow physics cur-
ricula leave most of our students ill-prepared to deal with life
and careers after college. It is natural for undergraduate and
beginning graduate physics students to see their careers con-
fined to a narrow and straight path. However, we as educators
know that their roads will be long and winding and most of
them will be employed in activities quite different from their
initial goals. They need to be exposed to physics much more
broadly in order to make wise choices and contribute strongly
in new directions. Even for the minority who stay true to their
youthful goals, progress frequently lies at the interface with
other fields, and an early investment in broadening can repay
enormous dividends.
At the advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, phys-
ics is a superb launching point for careers in almost every
area of science, technology, finance, and business.
Correspondingly, the number of physics bachelors and
advanced degrees that we now award is far too small for the
range of problems where physicists could meaningfully con-
tribute. A rapid, large growth in our number of majors will
be demand-driven if we educate our students much more
broadly. We will bring in more and more students who will
connect to other disciplines and infuse society with many
more science-wise citizens. A rapid growth is achievable.
Look at computer science.
We (B&T) offer a few examples of subjects that might be
part of a broader curriculum relevant to the challenges ahead.
Top of the list today has to be basic virology (using the phys-
ics of viruses as the entree) and epidemiology (using techni-
ques of statistical physics). Near the top are the heavily
entangled topics of climate change and energy generation/
distribution/consumption. Then there are subjects that have
largely disappeared from US university physics curricula,
while their contemporary importance has burgeoned: Optical
technology—particularly nonlinear optics–now plays a dom-
inant role in communication and information processing.
Statistical physics is a crucial foundation for large swaths
of modern science and technology, and closely related
statistical principles underlie economics and finance. The
natural world is largely fluid—the atmosphere, the oceans,
the earth’s deep interior, and, of course, much of biology
including human beings. Technology is also infused with
fluids: aerodynamics, engines, nuclear reactors, and so on.
Understanding and controlling the complex interplay
519 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 88, No. 7, July 2020 Guest Editorial 519
between the natural world and technology will hugely impact
our future. The related field of plasma physics is central to
controlled fusion and the solar-terrestrial relationship. Both
are probably vital to human survival in the long term.
Collaboration is another crucial aspect of our vision for
physics education in the post-Covid era. The highly individu-
alistic contributions of the great physicists of history are
comparatively rare today. Most physicists are employed in
groups, many of which are large and need to be wisely orga-
nized and managed. We must acknowledge this more in how
we teach physics. At the same time, we and our students
should recognize what can be lost if organization charts and
group thinking come to dominate a collaboration.
Revamping physicists’ relationship to society: We con-
clude by returning to three closely linked aspects of physi-
cists’ relationship to the society in which we live.
The first is communication. Over the last two decades, we
have become far more proficient in explaining advances in
science and technology to nonscientists and this has become
a rewarding part of the job for many of us, especially our
younger colleagues. Among those of our fellow citizens who
already have some science background, the interest in our
message and success in understanding are high, but we are
still not reaching enough of the population. To do so will
require more of us to contribute, experimenting with new
approaches and recognizing that communication is a two-
way street. Moving beyond outreach, many more of us must
engage in community building with our fellow citizens,
bringing our science-based ways of thinking into the mix.
The second is diversity. We in physics are still failing to
include women and minorities fairly and robustly. In
addition to ensuring equity, having colleagues from all
backgrounds is essential if we want to spread our science
message to all of society; and diverse backgrounds can
bring new viewpoints that foster new directions for solving
problems. The most effective place to catalyze diversity is
middle school.
Third, physics is, by default, an international activity, part
of a global human culture. From the robust superstructure of
large organizations like CERN, to the delicate filigree of
inter-personal trans-world collaboration, our practice is bet-
ter than, and quite incompatible with, the chauvinism and
nationalism that are being stoked right now and must be
combatted in wise and winning ways.
It will not be easy to engineer these political, cultural, and
educational shifts, but the need is great, the opportunity is
real, and we must start today. To do so, will honor the mem-
ory of all those who have died under Covid.
Roger D. Blandford
School of Humanities and Sciences
Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305
rdb3@stanford.edu
Kip S. Thorne
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
kipst@icloud.com
Editor’s note: B&T co-authored a textbook aimed at
broadening physics education “Modern Classical Physics”
published in 2017 by Princeton University Press.
520 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 88, No. 7, July 2020 Guest Editorial 520


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