Introduction

Right from the school, when a child opts for science stream, he/she is destined to struggle for a position in medicine, engineering or information technology. As if these three branches meant the whole tree of science. Although some are able to make into these fields, a majority of science students count themselves as failures. And when such frustrated and demoralized failures enter into higher education and then research, how can India expect a position in Modern science?

Think…

•   Is it not the time to change the outlook of science students in India?

•   How the importance of basic science research can go deeper into the minds of school-children?

•   How the parents, who pressurize their kids to become IT professionals, engineers and doctors, can also help them to become scientists?

•   How the teachers, educators, policy makers, administrators… can help in Indian science research too?

The round table on “The Basic Sciences: The Science Lever for Development”, held during the 33rd session of UNESCO’s General Conference, gathered some 50 ministers responsible for science policy from about 50 countries.

In his opening speech, The Director General of the Organization, Koïchiro Matsuura, underlined the need for governments to “re-evaluate the priority they give to science education and scientific research and their impact on overall development policies.” He added “science leads to technological advances and economic benefits that offer unique opportunities to meet basic human needs, reduce poverty, protect the environment and improve the quality of life.

The goals of basic research are to discover new laws and principles, develop original theories, and predict and discover unknown phenomena in an effort to answer questions about the origins of matter, the behavior of the universe, and the phenomenon of life”.

The results of such research have intrinsic value as shared intellectual assets that contribute to the advancement of human culture. They can also instill hope and pride in a nation’s people. Sometimes new research findings can have a great impact on society by leading to revolutionary changes in technological systems or by creating totally new fields of technology. Moreover, a profound understanding of nature and humanity is a major prerequisite if humanity is to achieve continuing progress while maintaining harmony with nature.

The importance of basic science in:

Medical education

Basic biochemistry, for example, teaches the economy of energy, from substrate metabolism to the generation of high energy phosphate bonds, helpful principles for critical analysis of so many dubious “energy healing” claims.

Basic sciences often translate directly into patient care. Without a grasp of biochemistry and physiology the clinician becomes a slave to the Internet or resorts to rote memorization, an approach which invites error in those patients who forget to read the textbooks.

Bedside diagnostic skills also rely on the foundation of basic science. If this were not so, a junior high school student could be taught physical diagnosis in a few sessions.

Molecular Medicine Approaches

To answer the questions “What genes are mutated and what is the role of these genes in causing cancer” laboratory scientists use a variety of molecular and cellular biology techniques. Very often, answering these questions requires that the gene being studied is cloned. Once a gene is cloned, many questions can be asked regarding its function.

What is the nucleotide sequence of the gene and does it resemble any other genes for which we know the function?

When, where (in what cells) and how much is the gene expressed(protein synthesized).

What happens if the gene product is overproduced?

What happens to a cell or organism if the gene product is made non-functional?

With what proteins does the gene product interact?

The above questions can be dealt effectively in syllabi included at primary education level.

In the Science of Education

The science of education has been influenced by the basic sciences to the extent that educational research now has been able to modernize its approach by accepting and using the basic scientific methodology and experimental techniques. Using primarily the same steps of scientific investigations, education today holds a place of much greater esteem than ever before. The methods of deductive and inductive reasoning are the basis of scientific inquiry, which has proved of extreme value not only to physical science, but also to the study of human behavior. There is no question that basic sciences like biology, medical science, mathematics, statistics and social sciences like anthropology, psychology, and economics have helped make education truly a science. Indeed, without the knowledge of scientific methodology provided by these sciences, there would be no true research in the field of education.

The Solution to the problem:

Start at the school-level

It is the duty of the teaching faculty and management of school, colleges to inculcate an awareness and enthusiasm in the students about the importance of sciences for the advancement of the nation. From there on, it is a cakewalk to successful ventures of research activities. The school or college can establish contacts with universities in the area to continue research.

At the College/University Level

The attention of students should be drawn towards sciences with an assurance of a career so that students can choose the science stream. Apart from this, there needs a change in policy of the government for sustained grants for universities rather one-time grants.

Moreover, the essential thing is that the government should try to improve the funding position and bring about sustained development of science laboratories with liberal funding.