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Because of new knowledge gained through research, scientists continually revise and re-evaluate their ideas. The importance of science, however, reaches far beyond the scientific world. Today, scientists contribute information to discussions about health and disease, and about the relationship between human beings and the living and nonliving environment.
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Make a list of things that you need to understand to protect your life and the lives of others close to you. Chances are that your list will include drugs and alcohol, smoking and lung disease, AIDS, cancer, and heart disease. Other questions focus on public health and the environment. How can we best use antibiotics to make sure that those “wonder drugs” keep working for a long time? How much of the information in your genes should you be able to keep private? Should communities produce electricity using fossil fuels, nuclear power, or hydroelectric dams? How should chemical wastes be disposed of? Who should be responsible for their disposal?
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All of these questions involve scientific information. For that reason, an understanding of science and the scientific approach is essential to making intelligent decisions about them. None of these questions, however, can be answered by science alone. They involve the society in which we live and the economy that provides jobs, food, and shelter. They may require us to consider laws and moral principles. In our society, scientists alone do not make final decisions—they make recommendations. Who makes the decisions? We, the citizens of our democracy do—when we vote to express our opinions to elected officials. That is why it is more important than ever that everyone understand what science is, what it can do, and what it cannot do.
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