Science Outside the Lab: A Forgotten Aspect of Science to Boost Development
Science has been defined as a mechanism or process of generating and managing the knowledge in the form of testable conclusions, theories or laws. This mechanism or process is well known as research conducted by scientists and researchers. This scientific research involve in the production of knowledge is also known as the science inside the lab because scientists or researchers are producing knowledge while working in academic and research institutions around the world. The second aspect of managing the knowledge is called Science Outside the Lab.
Science outside the lab is aimed to explore the relationships of science, innovation, policy, and societal outcomes before it is being store or applied for society. Ethics in science and scientific policies are famous sections of science outside the lab.
Science outside the lab is significant for decision-making in government and business at the local, state, federal, and international levels to keep the flow of funding and public trust smoothly.
Science outside the lab also refers to the social sciences and a broader context of multidisciplinary concept of doing science not only in laboratories but also convincing the people to trust the science.
Current era due to Covid19 pandemic has created the biggest panic of human history. This pandemic has questioned the scientific development as more than 3 million deaths happened in 2 years and still there is no hope or specific protocol to stop the spreading of virus.
People are divided into two groups, those who are trusting the science and waiting for vaccine and those who don’t trust the science and believe that it is all a political game or a kind of cold war to rule the world.
Past decades have seen an explosive growth of scientific development but biggest challenged remains very low budget flow to make research very impactful for resolving the human challenges like covid19 as very rare focus was given to science out of the lab.
So, it’s time to focus more the science outside the lab to create interactions and public engagement so that the scientific budget and scientific trust could be increased to stop any catastrophe in future.