Prof Fergus Shanahan: ‘It’s important not because we’re not trying to make everyone scientists but because we’re trying to make people science-aware’

PROF FERGUS SHANAHAN, director of APC Microbiome Institute; professor of medicine at UCC

Science Week started as something that was almost a curio. It has grown with such pace that you can’t miss it now, given the sheer scale of it.

Beyond the obvious extravaganza of drawing a quarter of a million participants in some form around the country, I think it has genuine importance. It’s important not because we’re not trying to make everyone scientists but because we’re trying to make people science-aware.

I believe passionately that science brings to society a way of critical thinking that opens minds. One of the long-term benefits of that is a better standard of public debate.

I also believe that scientific thinking better informs decisions regardless of your background. More importantly, it gives people a tolerance of opposing opinions.

There are more measurable benefits of Science Week, of course, such as showing people how many careers are possible within science and letting them see the excitement of it all.

School kids have become much more inquisitive when it comes to science. I even see it in some of our medical students: they may not be scientists but when they introduce science into their way of approaching patients I think it gives them a better attitude and a greater understanding of the complexity of human disease. It’s not that they’re more intelligent now; they’re just better informed.

It may sound trite but there’s an actual buzz about Science Week. It was always competing for our attention and now it’s a winner. Like it or not, it’s on the landscape of everyone’s calendar.

Science Foundation Ireland funds the APC Microbiome Institute