“PUS” and “PEST”: public unerstanding of science

Authors: Bojan Šošić and Jelena Kalinić 

This title might look very uncomfortable, but we won't be talking about anything as horrid as the title suggests. I wanted to write a few words about these two acronyms, PUS and PEST, which concern the promotion of science in the public.

The trend of acronyms which “mean something” doesn't always have to have the happiest results. PUS stands for “Public Understanding of Science”, while PEST stands for “Public Engagement with/in Science and Technology. Then we also have PAS – which stands for “Public Awareness of Science”.

Behind these, not very pleasant sounding names, stands what we call science advocacy – one of those hard-to-translate phrases. However, behind the translation into our local languages, there is a series of question marks because the translation itself does not explain what it actually means. Essentially, it means all engagement and efforts to bring certain scientific terms, occurrences and processes to people who are not in the domain of basic natural and applied science. It is a transfer of knowledge to sectors of society which are not directly involved in the process of knowledge creation. If we interpret knowledge as one of the five pillars of power, along with wealth, military equipment, popularity of a certain individual (the ill-favored term used “influencer”) and the media, then we're practically talking about the transfer of power.

The public often misses to see the importance of fundamental research and realize that the benefits available to people in developed societies are there primarily thanks to the investments in science, and that politics and economy are a milieu which favors the realization of these benefits for a maximum number of individuals and smaller interest groups in the shortest period of time.

With the increase of number, the extent of scientific disciplines and the conquest of new scientific domains, there is a growth in the need to familiarize the public with scientists' activities and new scientific cognition. Paradoxically, at the same time, there is an increased mistrust in one part of the society towards science, which we see as the expression of a superficial exposure to scientific topics, as well as the lack in the systemic introduction to general scientific thought and problem solving. The need to educate wider masses on questions of science has ceased to be a one direction “Public Understanding of Science – PUS” a while ago, and there is an emphasis on the need for the public to create paths via which science can spread its scope and reach, at least in some aspects, through so-called “Public Engagement in Science and Technology – PEST”.

Unfortunately, in our region, the dominant opinion is that knowledge has very little power in a system of patronage, corruption and autocracy. This opinion, which blocks development and depresses needs to come to an end, even though the process is lengthy. If we keep in mind that one talentless, but extremely popular, singer can call the masses to a boycott of mandatory vaccination and spread falsehoods on EU practices regarding issues of immunization, we can understand that the last line of defense against this plague is the public advocacy of a scientific world outlook, rationality and the fight to push objective facts towards a larger number of people.

English language post