A recent piece on new Australian Nobel Prize-winner Professor Brian Schmidt contains some interesting remarks on science and science policy development. He calls the relationship between science and policy as “a little messy" and goes on to say that “I think that science should inform public policy. Public policy needs to take it as an input. It doesn’t mean it’s the only input.”
Science did not appear to be informing public policy at the NZIAHS forum at Te Papa on Tuesday 4th October. Several speakers gave insightful critiques of New Zealand's economic performance and the role of science. Then four politicians trotted out mostly tired and backward-looking ideas for the future of science in New Zealand. After some inspriational speakers earlier in the afternoon, these gents were definitely underwhelming snooze-makers.
Another interesting aside on the Nobel prize story is on how modern-day WiFi technology was developed "accidentally" by Australian radio-astronomers. This kind of thing happens so often in science, and completely belies the short-term and siloed focus of much of the science funding landscape in New Zealand. When will policy makers get it that serendipity happens in science, and it's important to fund a broad spectrum of research - even stuff that has no obvious economic payoff?
