Boosting science

New Zealand's future prosperity, it is often said, lies in its ability to re-establish a favoured status for the sciences.

From this platform, so the argument goes, will evolve cadres of young, inventive and scientifically literate minds providing the intellectual capital on which to build the necessary competitive edge for the industries in which such talent will eventually reside.

Agricultural science, horticultural science, food science, marine science, information technology, biotechnology, engineering, electronics, high-tech science, information science ... the scope of endeavour, the possibilities for research, discovery and application are almost limitless.

This may seem self-evident, so it is all the more puzzling that the broad cultural milieu in which science has vied for status and attention has, during past decades, seemingly cooled on the subject.

Somewhere along the way, science lost its mojo - or that is how it appears.

These concerns have been bolstered, for example, by the fall-off in popularity of the sciences as secondary school subjects.

Whether this is in fact so, and to what extent and why, are questions worthy of entire research projects.

Happily, there are signs that an apparent reversal of fortunes may be under way.

One of those is the growth and consolidation of the New Zealand International Science Festival, running this week in Dunedin.

Unapologetically aimed at a broad audience and age-range, and coinciding with the school holidays, it aims "to celebrate and promote education and research in the fields of science, the environment, and technology, and to foster awareness of the contributions which scientific, technological, and environmental endeavours make to society".

Now in its seventh year, the 2010 festival is themed "Everyday Science - Food for Thought", a canny way to recruit budding scientists to the cause.

With its roster of international speakers, appetising lectures, workshops and tasty demonstrations, underpinned by a roster of solid academic sessions, the festival lists more than 200 events during its six days.

There have been other initiatives, local and national, which also point to a revival of interest in science, not least the realisation in the sector that it had to become better at promoting itself.

The tiresome old cliche of the absent-minded professor had to be done away with; no longer was it sufficient to be conducting world-class science: scientists had to have the ability to communicate that fact, and the excitement accompanying it, with society at large.

The establishment of a national Science Media Centre to assist in the interpretation and presentation of science in the everyday world, and, more locally, the inauguration of the masters degree in science communication at the University of Otago are just such moves.

The appointment by Prime Minister John Key of Sir Peter Gluckman as his chief science adviser, and Sir Peter's subsequent formation of a working group, the aims of which include lending the rigour and disciplines of science-based evidence to the formation of aspects of social policy, is another.

It also helps consolidate science's claims over areas of academic endeavour that once might have been airily dismissed as belonging to arts and humanities.

The Government, belatedly, has also made up ground on its decision, early in its term of office, to ditch the previous administration's research and development tax credit - a move which seemed short-sighted at the time.

It has refashioned its support as research and development grants worth $321 million over the next four years, a step in the right direction, as is the announcement of the new Ministry of Science and Innovation to be formed from the present Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

Children today take for granted the practical applications of science once considered to be the distant dreams of a "space-age" future: satellite TV, cellphones, the internet.

Paradoxically, some of the mystery and excitement that once enshrouded "science" has been lost.

Which is why such diverse and far-reaching celebrations as the international science fair are so important.

They promise to help reinvigorate the scientific disciplines with a missing sense of mystique and curiosity; and to stimulate interest in fields which pose challenges to New Zealand as a nation, and to the world as a whole.

Fittingly, the science of food and its production, allied to the environment in which that occurs, feature prominently on this week's programme.

Attaining intellectual and competitive advantage in these fields will ultimately help future-proof the nation's prosperity.