Xref: utzoo comp.misc:6168 misc.misc:6266 rec.misc:982 misc.wanted:5004 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!genemans From: genemans@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jan Genemans) Newsgroups: comp.misc,misc.misc,rec.misc,misc.wanted Subject: Debate Info Wanted - Secrecy and Science Keywords: resources and/or opinions Message-ID: <13582@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> Date: 22 May 89 01:48:44 GMT Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU Reply-To: genemans@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Jan Genemans) Followup-To: comp.misc Organization: U.S.M.M.A., Kings Point, NY Lines: 32 In my Development of Scientific Thought class I have to do a debate on an assigned topic. The topic that was given to me was Secrecy and Science. I need to know the arguments for and against the statement that "Science is public knowlege" so I can effectively make my argument for this statement. The only recent example that I can think of is the controversy over Pons & Flieshman in which they withold the secrete to their experiment. I would appreciate it if you could point me to some publications which deal with the topic or even hear from you with your own opinions on the topic which is detailed below. Please respond, via e-mail since I do not read these newsgroups on a regular basis. Sorry if I posted to the wrong group. Here is the statement to argue: Science is public knowledge. To claim that knowledge is scientific, one must publish it so that one's peers can scrutinize it. In the twentieth- century; however, the openess of science has been repeatedly violated by nations and corporations interested in controlling the uses to which scientific knowlege it put. Has this "turn of secrecy" so altered one of the central features of science that its future is in doubt? Has it transformed a "democratic" science into an "authoritarian" science? I am to prove that open publication and communication is essential to the progress of science and that science cannot flourish if it is forced to operate under a viel of secrecy. Thanks in advance for any help that you may give me. / Jan Genemans, Consultant USENET: Jan.Genemans@Dartmouth.edu \ / Post Office Box 756 UUCP: dartvax!mac.dartmouth.edu!Jan.Genemans \ \ U.S. Merchant Marine Academy / \ Kings Point, NY 11024-1699 "Live long and prosper" -Spock /