As science develops, new research, data and findings come about, which revolutionizes technology and brings forth improvements to better humanity.
The Eagleton Institute of Politics held a workshop to discuss whether scientific methods directly bring those changes to society or if they influence public policy to bring those changes. The workshop, titled “When Does Science Influence Policy?” was held on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Eagleton Institute building on Douglass Campus.
Stuart Shapiro, director of the Public Policy Program at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, specializes in the U.S. regulatory process and was one of the speakers in the panel.
“What we wanted to cover was the issue that a lot of people worry (about) that politicians ignore science, but the reality is much more complicated,” Shapiro said. “In my talk, I wanted to emphasize that sometimes science does make a difference in policy, sometimes it doesn’t.”