Machines Like Us interviews: Ann Grand

Ann Grand started her working life in the late 1970s as biology teacher. She retired after ten years but continued to be passionate about the excitement and exhilaration of science. Later, she took a degree with the Open University, studying topics from geology to systems theory. In 2003, she founded the Bristol Science Café and, in her spare time, sustains the work of the national and international network of science cafés, running the website and supporting and mentoring new café organizers. In January 2009, she started work on an interdisciplinary PhD research project, based at the University of the West of England, Bristol, seeking ways to bring Open Science and public engagement together in a fruitful and symbiotic way. The research project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

(Ann would like to make it clear that the opinions and views expressed in this interview are entirely personal and nothing she has said should be taken as indicative of the views either of UWE, Bristol or EPSRC.)

Interview conducted by Norm Nason.

MLU: Welcome, Ann. It's a great privilege having you here.

AG: The privilege is all mine. I’ve been an admirer of your work with this site and community for some time—it’s strangely odd to find myself a contributor, but a great pleasure.

MLU: I want to get to the specifics of your interests and work, but first, let me ask you a very general question: What is science?

AG: Crumbs! Start with the easy one, Norm.

As the great John Lennon almost said: 'Science is the answer and you know that for sure'.

Almost from the moment we are born, we create narratives to answer the hypotheses we make about the world. For the very young, those narratives are satisfactorily peopled with fairies and spirits but as we grow older, we become—or should become—dissatisfied with these shape-shifting phantasms.

Science is a way of asking questions that dispel the phantasms; a way of thinking about the world that eventually comes down on truth. Which is not to say that the truth doesn't shift about sometimes (Newton thought he'd sorted out physics); none the less, science is the way we work towards truth, rather than settling for mere belief. Facts need to be challenged and evidence needs to be replicable. The willingness to change one's mind in the face of new evidence is a strength, not a weakness.

And it's fun and beautiful and exciting and compelling and thrilling and stirring and stimulating. There's wonder in unweaving the rainbow; awe in contemplating the patient panting of the stromatolites and astonishing majesty in the austere truthfulness of natural selection.

MLU: Your inspiring response might come as a surprise to members of the general public who consider science to be mysterious, dry, and incomprehensible. But then, your career has always been concerned with bridging the gap between the scientific and public communities. Why is this important to you, and what benefits can ordinary people realize from being engaged in scientific efforts?

Interview continued on the following pages: