Leading Imperial historian discusses Science in Society

Professor David Edgerton gives keynote speech on the future of science - <em>News</em>

Wednesday 17 October
By Naomi Weston

Innovation culture or anti-science Britain? This was the question facing yesterday’s Science in Society conference, run by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Keynote speaker, David Edgerton, Hans Rausing Professor in the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College, discussed how we need to change the way we understand science.

"We need to change and improve the elite understanding of science," says Professor Edgerton, "We need to learn from the long and significant interactions there have been between science and society, not least in Britain itself."

In his lecture, Professor Edgerton challenged the theory that hi-tech innovation is essential for progress in the modern world. "It is important to hold on to the knowledge we already have, which is necessarily about the past," he explains. "Without it we are ignorant. We need to talk about science and technology as grown ups, not as children gawping at a future we cannot know."

"Many issues we face today have been discussed already," adds Professor Edgerton, "often in richer ways than today."

An example of this is how we think of technology in futuristic terms and fail to notice older technologies surrounding us. Modern technology is not just a matter of electricity, mass production, aerospace, nuclear power and the internet. It is also about the rickshaw, the horse, corrugated iron, cement and the refrigerator.

Other speakers at the conference included Lord Rees of Ludlow, President of the Royal Society, Andy Stirling, Science and Technology Policy Research from the University of Sussex and Adrian Alsop, Head of Research at the Economic and Social Research Council.

Professor Edgerton was the founding director of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the College. One of Britain’s leading historians, he has challenged conventional analyses of science and technology for 20 years.

He is the author of The Shock of the Old: technology and global history since 1900, which was published this year, and provides a new way of thinking about the history of technology and society in the past and in the present. Other books he has published include, Science, Technology and the British Industrial ‘Decline’, 1870-1970 and Warfare State: Britain 1920-1970.