Science and Politics

It has been a bad week for the Government's relationship with scientists. Professor David Nutt, head of the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said in a lecture that the scientific evidence was that cannabis is a less harmful drug than either nicotine or alcohol. Home Secretary Alan Johnson promptly sacked him.

Five members of the Advisory Council have since resigned in protest at the sacking. One of them, Dr Simon Campbell, was quoted on the BBC website as saying that home secretaries would listen to scientific advice but had usually already made their decisions. Perhaps not coincidentally the government recently decided to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug (with greater penalties for possession and supply) rather it's previous classification as Class C. The Science Minister (Lord Drayson) was in Japan at the time of the sacking and was not consulted by the Home Secretary but has subsequently acknowledged the disquiet felt by scientists over the matter.

An understanding of the nature and limits of science is not high on the list of qualifications needed to run the country, but probably should be. A politician needs to be able to understand - in broad terms at least - what he is being told by his advisers and also appreciate the limits of what science can say about a given problem. In this case it seemed that Alan Johnson was not able - or chose to ignore - the difference between a scientific opinion on the relative dangers of various drugs and an attack on government policy.

It is the scientific advisor's role to present the science in as clear and impartial a way as possible. It is the politician's job to make policy decisions which may be influenced by such advice although economic, social and political factors will probably be more important in most cases. Unfortunately it is often tempting for a politician to paint a layer of scientific justification over a policy arrived at for reasons of political expediency. Once the policy has been formed any scientific advice which casts doubt on the basis for that policy may be looked on by the politician as a potential political threat. In such cases it is easier to attack the scientist or the science than admit the real reasons for the policy, even if those reasons were - from a political point of view - sound.

Alan Johnson had many valid reasons to want to classify cannabis as a Class B drug, but scientific evidence was not one of them. By sacking a scientific advisor for expressing a scientific opinion the Home Secretary has caused a great deal of damage to the government's relationship with scientists, who must now be wondering what areas of scientific and academic independence will be next to come under attack. The damage done to the integrity and independence of American science under George W. Bush's presidency is a warning of what can happen if scientists feel compelled to make the 'facts' fit into a predetermined political line.

Independent scientific advice ultimately leads to better informed policy making. Even if there are good reasons to ignore the scientific advice, rubbishing it is counterproductive. The government has some bridge-building to do here.

Update: since I drafted this yesterday, Alan Johnson has agreed to write to members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to explain any decisions that go against their advice, and to refrain from pre-judging decisions on drug classification before the Advisory Council issues its advice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8355898.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8353685.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8347828.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8337185.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8334774.stm

On... The Mighty Mouse: trackball problem solved and then made irrelevant in less than a week

Over the years I have used many types of mouse. From old-style ones with the big rubber ball inside which collected fluff and wouldn't track properly, to optical mice with a scroll wheel which tracked well but tended to scratch your desk. But my all-time favourite has been the Apple Mighty Mouse with its tiny trackball replacing the scroll wheel. It might not be the most ergonomic mouse ever, but the little trackball with it's multiple-directional scrolling is a joy to use. Right up until it gets some fluff in it, when it sticks horribly. As the trackball is so small, it only takes a tiny crumb, hair or other bit of detritus to clog the mechanism up, and this is where your problems really start as there is no easy way to get the ball out to clean it. Searching the Internet produced two main suggestions, major mouse surgery or flipping it over and rubbing the ball vigorously with a damp cloth. As the former looked rather too likely to end in a dead mouse, I had been using the latter technique. The cloth is dampened so that the dirt (slightly) adheres to it, but it is not particularly effective. Using a more adhesive cleaner would therefore seem to be a good idea however sticky tape, for example, is likely to leave a slightly tacky layer on the trackball and actually make it more likely to attract and then clog up with dirt.

The solution came from the observation that a ball a Blu-Tack left on a desk top for a few days develops a patina of dust and hair of similar size to that which I wanted to remove from the mechanism. Rubbing the trackball firmly with a clean bit of Blu-Tack did indeed quickly solve the problem. It was sticky enough to remove the dirt but not so sticky as to leave any adhesive residue. Problem solved.

And then two days later Apple announced the Magic Mouse, ditching the trackball altogether for touch sensitive scrolling. Mind you, with the Magic Mouse costing an eye-watering £55, I think that I will be sticking to the Mighty Mouse and a fresh slab of Blu-Tack for the time being.

iPod Touch 3.0 software and the Psion Series 5

Well, gritted my teeth and stumped up the £5.99 to download the iPhone 3.0 software for my iPod Touch. I really feel that I should not have to pay for cut-and-paste and a landscape 'keyboard' (the only things I really want from it over version 2). So how does it perform? Cut-and-paste does what it says on the tin, and does it well, but then it should or course. The landscape keyboard is more interesting. Previously, I held the device in my left hand and stabbed at the software keys with the index or middle finger of my right hand. Now I can hold the Touch in both hands and use both thumbs. Not quite ideal as my thumbs are a little too big, but I can enter text much faster than previously. It puts me in mind of my old Psion series 5, my favourite 

PDA of all time. I have also owned an Acorn Pocketbook II (a badged Psion series 3, very good) a Sony Clie (not great) and a Palm Tungsten T3 (not bad). The series 5 was an ideal size, small enough to fit in a jacket pocket but big enough to have a usable keyboard (and I used it, two thumbed, to write many Open University assignments). There is nothing really like it today; modern PDA's, phones etc. are too small for serious text entry and netbooks are too big to stuff in your pocket. As an all round device that can be taken everywhere, the iPod Touch is probably the best option available.