ERIE, Pa. — From government briefings to school board meetings, disagreements over how best to manage the COVID-19 pandemic often side-stepped the science: More Americans now doubt or deny scientific findings that do not align with their worldview, according to the Pew Research Center.
That complicates even basic research, said Pam Silver, associate dean for academic affairs at Penn State Behrend.
“One of the things I always tell my students is that, in science, we don’t believe anything,” she said. “We think. We have opinions, which are based on facts. And opinions can be right or wrong. Beliefs can’t be wrong. They also do not require any kind of factual underpinning.”
To better understand the current environment for scientists, we asked Silver and other School of Science faculty members about the pressure to end the global health crisis, the new public scrutiny of the scientific process, and the importance of adjusting course as more data becomes available.
Pam Silver: "The scientific community is under tremendous pressure right now. This is high-stakes research — high stakes in terms of human life, in terms of money, and in terms of basic fundamental knowledge — and it already has led us to cutting-edge, unique technologies. There are going to be some course corrections along the way. That’s the nature of science, which is highly adaptive: You take what you know at that moment, and you interpret it the best you can, recognizing that as more information comes in, you are going to change your understanding of the issue."