Sir, - Might I suggest that, instead of erecting a multi-million pound spike, we should construct a public science museum to celebrate the new millennium. I envisage a complex with fairground-style rides, exhibits and displays to demonstrate the fundamental principles of science and technology in an entertaining and educational manner.
Although we live in a society that is completely dependent on science and technology, most of society has little knowledge of either. In the past decade we have witnessed an emerging "New Age" culture and an increase in the numbers of people believing in psychic phenomena, astrology, and the paranormal. Vast numbers are queueing up to be healed by such bizzare rituals as "crystal therapy". We have a secondary education system whereby students can leave school able to quote poems by Yeats but have virtually no idea of how a television works, or the names of the people who discovered the structure of DNA.
Considering the public concern about such matters as nuclear power, the environment, genetically modified food, cloning and mobile-phone emissions, it is particularly worrying that, as Prof D. J. Fegan illustrated (April 7th), there has been a significant reduction in the number of students studying both physics and chemistry. How can a society make informed decisions on any of these issues if the science behind them is not understood? - Yours, etc., James Fryar,
Warren Green, Baldoyle, Dublin 13.