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Many scientists take a dim view of the court system - until they take part in it
Many scientists take a dim view of the court system--until they take part in it
BOSTON- Ten years ago, when Elizabeth Loftus agreed to serve as an expert witness in a high-profile trial around the outing of Central Intelligence Agency agent Valerie Plame, she was no rookie. The cognitive psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, had been using her knowledge about human memory to testify in legal cases for three decades.
sciencemag.org




Interesting study! Though...the court system is probably difficult to deal with, as there's basically competing interests at work. Anyone trying to dismiss evidence will of course point out flaws and harp on reasonable doubt. There's a lack of standards about just about every technology, seems to be the issue. (And cripes, nearly everyone answering the study being old and white means that they're polling, basically, people who formed their opinions of the court system fifty years ago.)
And, this caught my eye: "25% of the would-be participants believed that lawyers can understand science, and the number rose to 43% in those with court experience"
facepalms forever And there, right there, is part of science's problem, imho: this view that others "can't understand" science. That somehow only scientists can understand cause and effect. Science, at its very core and by its very nature, is logical and makes sense. If someone honestly "can't understand" it when they are open to learning, then that just means that they don't have enough information yet. I CAN explain CRISPR to my almost-90, high-school-educated grandmother. It will take a long time, and she will need to be actually interested in the topic to take it all in, because I'll have to refresh her basic biology and probably teach her how proteins and DNA work, but there is nothing there that she can't understand if I give her the background needed.
If you "can't" explain science to a non-scientist, then you are doing it wrong. ;P