Passing the buck
Let me at the outset congratulate you
on the wonderful editorial (Down To
Earth, Vol 4, No 21) questioning the
fact that Indian scientists do not
publish their research in popular
science magazines. The article has been
pinned up on the main notice board of
our institute and most of our scientists
have acclaimed it.
The point I would like to make is
that the problem really lies with the
CSIR'S (Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research) policies which recommend the publishing of our research
papers in high-impact journals and
these could only be foreign ones.
Therefore, if we were to write the same
for Down To Earth we would create an
impact factor of zero!
The concept of impact factor introduced by the new director-general of
the CSIR is something that is debatable.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding it because it basically means that we
should only aim for foreign journals
and ignore our national magazines in
the process. It is also the main reason
why none of our scientists will ever
think of disseminating their work to
our public. The issue of impact factor
must be taken up by your magazine.
ANTONIO MASCARENHAS
National Institute of Oceanography,
Dona Paula - 403 004,
Goa...
Holier than thou
I fully endorse your views regarding the Indian scientific establishmant's
apathetic attitude towards the dissemination of science. In developer countries, several top-ranking scientists have
written excellent popular books. They
are also contributing to popular magazines like the Scientific American.
Somehow, our scientists have
developed a wrong notion about
popular writing because they consider
it as being below their high status. They
think it is something best reserved for
their lesser colleagues to engage in.
Their disregard for it-makes them call it
a populist measure. Since our scientists
are not interested in such communication, it is but natural that
scientific establishments will have an
apathetic attitude towards science
magazines and newspapers. Perhaps
they think it is not their job to provide
information.
J V Narlikar is an exception (there
are few others like D Balasubramanian). During an interview, Narlikar
told me emphatically that "creating scientific awareness is a common responsibility and scientists are no exception
to this. Like other sections of society,
they too should work towards that
goal." In my opinion, universities and
research institutions should treat popular writings and research papers on par.
But what about the print media?
Only one or two English dailies may be
providing good science coverage. The
rest of them are content with publishing some features and occasional news
reports. Hindi dailies too - including
the national ones - seem to have scant
regard for science. Send them a report
or feature based on a paper published
in Nature or Science and one could be
sure they will dump it in the dustbin.
Their editors would like to have the
latest equipment in their offices but it
does not seem to occur to them that
laypersons may want to read about
the latest scientific breakthroughs.
They are confident that Hindi readers
would not be interested in reading
about the same.
The daily Aaj, published from
Varanasi is an exception to this. Their
science coverage may not be excellent,
but I appreciate their openness towards
science.
AKHILESH KUMAR SINGH
Science journalist...
Money matters
I must congratulate Anil Agarwal for
his editorial on science coverage and
how our scientists behave with the
ordinary public in sharing the fruits of
science, particularly what science can
do for the common folk. I want to
include doctors and engineers in the
category of scientists because they
interact more closely with common
people than do scientists. Today, more
health problems arc created by doctors
because of their inability to understand
the language of their patients.
Take the simple case of dehydration
and diarrhoea occuring among children. For several years, Indian grandmothers have practiced oral dehydration therapy. But our doctors do not
even want to talk about the homemade salt and sugar solution as a first
line of treatment before children could
be treated for severe dehydration.
When I talk to paediatricians on various occasions about oral dehydration
and the use of oral dehydration solution
(bRS) packets before they prescribe
Intravenous (iv) therapy indiscriminately, they privately confide that ORS is
for public relations and iv treatment for
their livelihood! All sciences have ethical underpinnings and every scientist
hds to learn science for the benefit of
the ordinary public. Similarly, our public health engineers have mystified the
management of human waste by propagating expensive toilet technologies
like septic tanks even when there is an
acute dearth of drinking water and collapsed underground drainage systems
in many of our towns and peri-urban
areas. The simple leach pit toilets
can do wonders to stop the faecal
menace in the countryside. It seems
as though doctors and public health
engineers want our children to be
under the constant threat of diarrhoea
and dehydration.
Our scientists should 'unlearn' their
science and only then can scientific
knowledge spread in the country. If science is not popular in India it is
because scientists are not interested in
popularising it and sadly, Down To
Earth cannot do much about it.
MANU N KULKARNI
Representative
UNICEF, Bhopal...
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