Science and Society in the 1970s

Century of Endeavour

'Science and Society' actions in the 1970s

(c) Roy Johnston 1999

Most of this theme in the 1970s was expressed directly via the Irish Times column, but there were other actions of significance, the principal one being the continuation of the work of the 'science and technology committee' set up in 1967 by the Dublin Wolfe Tone Society, and the attempt by that group to develop further the concept of an organised group among scientists to face up to 'science and society' issues. This had a brief existence, with a registered membership, in the 1970s as the 'Kane-Bernal Society'. An earlier attempt in 1967, supported by an exchange of letters with JD Bernal, had fallen foul of the escalation of the Northern situation. The revival of the attempt in the early 70s was a consequence of the writer having pulled out from front-line political work, and of the existence of the Irish Times column.

The Kane-Bernal Society Mk 2

Round about 1972 Derry Kelleher and I attempted to resurrect our earlier concept, and we had a series of meetings in the basement of 190 Pearse St, in the building occupied by Professor FG Foster's Department of Statistics in TCD. During this time I had attached myself to Foster's Department, and was helping to supervise some of the MSc projects in Operations Research, as outlined elsewhere.

The group, apart from Kelleher and myself, included Myles Parker, Robert Blackith, Martin Speight, Paul Dowding, Noel Murphy and others; the latter was a UCD chemical engineer, while most of the others were basically environmentalists from TCD. We identified various problems and opportunities in the general area of the interface between research and the implementation of its results, mobility of people between teaching and research, the human aspects of implementation of innovative systems, problems of man-machine relationship, definitions of 'growth', planned obsolescence, urban planning, supply and training of technicians.

We got as far as drafting a constitution, and I have a copy with amendments in pen. The 'Methods of Work' section called for '...a periodic meeting to hear progress reports from problem-area groups, and the reading of papers by people of suitable standing, either in public events organised by the Association, or on the grounds of other societies..... the encouragement of interdisciplinary and inter-institutional contacts... publication of a newsletter.'

I also have copies of drafts of articles written by me and by Kelleher on the analysis of the Guinness crisis; I have no evidence or recollection however of their being published. The thrust of the analysis was directed at the nature of the Guinness management structure, and the opportunities presented for diversifying with the support of the available bio-technical knowhow into areas other than the fermentation of sugar to get alcohol.

There are records of various meetings throughout 1972, and interactions with the Biomedical Engineering Society (via Noel Murphy) and the Industrial Archaeology Society, with Dr HS Corran, and I seem to have been able to use the contacts to generate related published material via the Irish Times column.

After the end of 1972 the trail goes cold, and I suspect that the network continued informally as a ideas-supply contacts for the Column.

I did get to write a few reviews, for example THE GREATNESS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN: Creator and Rebel by Banesh Hoffman, Hart-Davis and McGibbon, 1972, £2.95.

Science and Marxism

In or about 1977 an episode occurred which is worth recording. Helena Sheehan, now on the academic staff of Dublin City University, was then doing her PhD in the philosophy of science in TCD, and I was in the TCD industrial liaison office, at the science-technology interface, acting on behalf of the College. I made an effort to build bridges.

Helena was associated with the TCD Communist Society, which ran occasional political events of student interest. I attended one at which she spoke on the 'scientific revolution'. While much of the discussion was somewhat 'up in the air', I felt it no harm to encourage the idea that mastery of science was an important aspect of social change. So when Helena came up with the idea of an invited speaker from the USSR with a science background, I was prepared to make an effort to ensure that the event was supported by at least some members of the College science community, and I made this known. This however turned out not to be welcome; I was accused of 'wanting to take over' the meeting. So I did little, but I did turn up to hear what the USSR speaker had to say. She had presumably got him to come over via the Party network.

The meeting was not very well attended; she had apparently made it an event to which outside political people came in, rather than as a promotional event relating Marxism to the student and College environment. The USSR guest speaker (I forget his name) turned out to be a tired hack, for whom this presumably was a trip to the West as reward for loyal service. However I took him as a possible source of insight into current USSR developments, and I asked a question about the Lysenko episode, which had earlier been a crunch issue at the interface between science and politics. The speaker however brushed aside the question, on the grounds that Lysenko, being by then discredited, was not a fit subject for study in a science context.

In other words, the problem of the dialectics of the interaction between science and society, including the analysis of historic pathologies, had not been identified in the USSR, and was being simply ignored. We had here an example of the atrophy of critical thinking under Brezhnev. However I did not get the impression that any of the Irish Marxists of the 'high church' picked up on this.

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