Sense About Science

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Sense About Science is a United Kingdom independent charitable trust. It was founded in 2002 by Liberal Democrat Lord Taverne to promote good science and evidence for the public.

The trust operates by a number of methods, including:

encouraging and assisting scientists to engage in public debates about their area of expertise
responding to scientifically inaccurate claims in the media
helping people contact scientists with appropriate expertise
preparing briefings about the scientific background to issues of public concern

The trust maintains EvidenceBase, a database of over 1,000 UK scientists willing to contribute their knowledge to inform public debate. It also runs the Voice of Young Science programme to help early career scientists engage in public debates. Sense About Science hosts and annual lecture and publishes an ad hoc series of reports under the title of Sense About...

Since its founding, Sense About Science has contributed to the UK public debates about such subjects as alternative medicine, detox, GM plants, nuclear power, the use of peer review and stem cell research. Some campaigning groups have described Sense About Science as a 'pro-GM lobby group'. However, the published sources of their funding reveal that they have never directly received funding from companies involved in genetically-manipulated plants.

The trust's director, Tracey Brown, was a senior analyst at the UK crisis management PR firm Regester Larkin; their programme manager, Ellen Raphael, also worked there. Regester Larkin's clients include a roster of biotech companies such as the BioIndustry Association and Aventis CropScience. The trust's chairman, Lord Dick Taverne, is a co-founder of the PR consultancy firm "Prima Europe", whose clients include Unilever, RTZ, BNFL, and Glaxo Wellcome. Taverne resigned from Prima in 1998 because UK rules forbid lobbying by sitting MPs and Peers.

[edit] Controversy about links to 'Living Marxism' and the Revolutionary Communist Party

Sense about Science has been accused of being a front organisation for the Living Marxism group or 'LM group' - a political grouping that grew out of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Many of prominent individuals in Sense about Science were contributors to Living Marxism magazine, until its demise when it lost a libel case brought by journalists from ITN. Some are still linked to the successor publication - the on-line 'Spiked (magazine)'. Sense about Science are forceful proponents of GM crops, nuclear power, and take an equivocal approach to climate change. It has been claimed that they have co-opted the scientific establishment to lend respectability and credence for views originally developed in Living Marxism.

Living Marxism often expounded an anti-environmentalist agenda. One notable associate Martin Durkin (television director) produced a Channel 4 series Against Nature which attacked the Environmental movement as 'Nazis'. Channel 4 was later forced by the Independent Television Commission to broadcast a prominent apology, when it was found that the views of Environmentalists who had contributed to the programme had been distorted[1].

A similar controversy surrounds 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' a documentary produced by Durkin for Channel 4 in 8th March 2007. On March 17th Sense about Science organised a conference on Weather and Climate at which two meteorologists, Professor Paul Hardaker and Professor Chris Collier, were reported by the BBC as saying:

"Two leading UK climate researchers say some of their peers are ‘overplaying’ the global warming message."

However writing in the Independent on Sunday (IoS), Geoffrey Lean noted of Hardaker:

“He pointed out that he and his colleague were not experts on climate change.” [2]

Lean also reported that confusion surrounded the views of Hardaker and Collier after Hardaker told the IoS “he could not think of a case where a scientist had overstated the position“ on climate change. The timing of the conference organised by 'Sense about Science' and the statement which could be seen as support of Durkin was described as 'convenient' by 'media watchdog' medialens [3].

Sense about Science have been accused of a programme of entryism into the scientific community. Their aim is claimed to be the support of an extreme libertarian political agenda to hasten the historic collapse of capitalism predicted by Karl Marx.

The intellectual inspiration of both Living Marxism and Sense about Science is claimed to be Frank Furedi, also known as Frank Richards - a Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. Present staff of Sense about Science, such as director Tracey Brown and programme manager Ellen Raphael are former students of his. Other individuals with connections to Living Marxism such as Fiona Fox and Tony Gilland serve on various committees of Sense about Science.