Since there has been discussion of science and society  and so forth, I
would be curious to hear any comments/reviews of the exhibit "Science in
American Life" which is scheduled to open at the Smithsonian's National Museum
of American History at the end of April (in Washington, DC).  I won't describe
it in detail because my comments might shape how you see the exhibit, but
when it was conceived the big  theme was supposed to be the interrelationship
of science and society.
 
I worked on the exhibit for about two years before leaving for grad school,
and so am curious to hear how successful the "message(s)" come across. I was
an audience researcher for part of my time there and had to figure out how our
visitors thought about science.  People who are not involved in the "scientific
enterprise," who don't know any scientists, or who only think that they "did"
science in high school lab classes, (I am lumping a lot of categories here--
how unscientific of me!) tend to think of science in mythic, monolithic terms
that in part reflect the sales pitch scientists (and others) have used to
sell themselves and their research over the past century or so.
 
Science then becomes this "thing" separate from the human beings who engage in
scientific endeavors.  We did an activity called "Draw  Science" to see how
people thought about it, and got lots of pictures of the earth and technology
and people writing "Science is everything"  and very few looking specifically
at how and why scientists do what they do. But if you look at science as the
actions of human beings than you begin to see that there's alot of room for
error.
 
[To tie this in to the creationism discussion, if you see the Bible as somethin
g produced by human action, than you may also see that there's alot of room for
mistakes.  Fundamentalist beliefs depend on accepting that the writers, trans-
lators, proofreaders and printers of the Bible are guided by the hand of God.]
 
Just my two cents,
Those in DC, please keep me posted on the Science in American Life opening.
I'm stuck out here in Indiana until mid-summer, and the only news coverage I
expect to see is the headline "Smithsonian has exhibit with Fort Wayne bomb
shelter."
Carolyn Brady
 
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  [log in to unmask]   | "But I don't want to go among mad
 MA Program in Public History |    people," Alice remarked.
   Indiana University at      | "Oh, you can't help that.
     Indianapolis             |    We're all mad here."