美国国家公共电台 NPR Should Scientists March? U.S. Researchers Still Debating Pros And Cons

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The huge crowds that came to Washington, D.C., last month for the Women's March have spawned¹ a renewed interest in marching on our nation's capital. A variety of marches are in the works, including a March for Science. As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, scientists seem split on whether taking to the streets for science is really a good idea.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE²: Jacquelyn Gill is a paleoecologist at the University of Maine. She says right after the inauguration³ and the Women's March, she went on Twitter and said, hey, we need a march for science.

JACQUELYN GILL: And someone else said, yeah, that's a great idea. And then someone else said, yeah, I had the same thought. And so then we all kind of glommed together and started working on it.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Gill says there's a lot of concern about the fate of science under President Trump⁴. His appointees include climate change skeptics. He's met with an anti-vaccination campaigner. He regularly cites false numbers on things like voter fraud and crime rates, while his surrogates defend the use of, quote, "alternative facts." Gill says the march will take a stand for the importance of public policies based on evidence.

GILL: Our goal, really, is to bring people together in a strong unifying⁵ message that science is important to our citizens. It's important to our nation. And that we are going to hold our elected representatives accountable to that.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The march now has a website and a Facebook page that's gotten the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. Sister marches are planned from Cleveland to Anchorage. The organizers describe it as a nonpartisan celebration of science, but not everyone buys that. Jerry Coyne is a biologist at the University of Chicago. He says the only thing that binds⁷ scientists together is that they all use the same tools - hypothesis-driven experiments, replication of results, peer review. How are you going to stick that on a protest sign?

JERRY COYNE: A march for science itself is just simply a march for the mechanisms⁸ that find truth. And who's going to pay attention to that?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says what will get attention is the politics.

COYNE: It's going to become a partisan⁶ march.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: And that is what worries some scientists who do research on hot-button issues, like Rob Young, a coastal⁹ geologist¹⁰ at Western Carolina University. He opposes the march.

ROB YOUNG: I'm not saying that we don't have a problem with ensuring that science has a seat at the table when we're making decisions at all levels of government. But this march is not going to make that job any easier.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He works on sea level rise, a reality that some politicians would rather ignore. He thinks it's best for scientists to interact one-on-one with decision makers¹¹ across the political spectrum¹², and says all a march will do is make scientists seem like just another biased¹³ interest group. He hates that the march will happen on April 22, which is Earth Day.

YOUNG: Those folks who have been trying to pigeonhole¹⁴ and demonize scientists as having a particular political view and identity will see scientists marching on Earth Day as a part of the environmental movement.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But others say, look, if some protest signs at this march are overtly¹⁵ political or even inflammatory, that's OK. Michael Eisen is a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He says scientists, who are used to controlled lab experiments, just have to get comfortable with the rough and tumble of public life.

MICHAEL EISEN: You just can't hope for perfect control over what a large group of people do when they get up to express themselves.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He thinks science is under threat, and that it's time for scientists to show they really care about how science gets used.

EISEN: You can't be completely blind to the fact that the current administration has a fairly dim of science in some areas.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's one reason why he's not just going to march. He's going to run for the U.S. Senate. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。

6 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

7 binds   

v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕

参考例句：

• Frost binds the soil. 霜使土壤凝结。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Stones and cement binds strongly. 石头和水泥凝固得很牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

10 geologist   

n.地质学家

参考例句：

• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
• He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。

11 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

13 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

14 pigeonhole   

n.鸽舍出入口；v.把...归类

参考例句：

• The pigeonhole principle is an important principle in combinatorics.鸽巢原理是组合学中一个非常重要的原理。
• I don't want to be pigeonholed as a kids' presenter.我不想被归类为儿童节目主持人。

15 overtly   

ad.公开地

参考例句：

• There were some overtly erotic scenes in the film. 影片中有一些公开色情场面。
• Nietzsche rejected God's law and wrote some overtly blasphemous things. 尼采拒绝上帝的律法，并且写了一些渎神的作品。