French Académie des sciences website

EDITORIAL - September 2011

Bernard MEUNIER

Member of the Académie des sciences - Institut de France

Delegate for Scientific Information and Communication

My attention was drawn recently to an opinion poll published in the daily newspaper Le Monde and the scientific magazine La Recherche. According to the findings of this poll, 84% of the persons interviewed declared that they trusted the Académie des sciences, to explain the challenges of scientific research and the debates that the related issues generate in the general public. If I may quote our President, Prof. Alain CARPENTIER who was commenting this result at the latest Ceremonial Session: "We have reached the trust rating of 84%. Fine! But now we must convince the remaining 16%".

Indeed, we can agree that 84% is an encouragement for an institution that goes back now for over 3 centuries, but which has continuously modernised its structures with a constant aim to be objective and transparent on all scientific topics and issues. The Académie des sciences registers the same level of trust as medical practitioners and only a fraction below that of the CNRS, at 86%. We can observe that "research scientists" are credited with a 92%, viz., the best score of the poll. We deduce from this last figure that the Academy still has a margin of progress to cover.

The strength of our Academy lies over and above all other considerations on its 252 Members, its 140 Foreign Associate Members and its 102 Corresponding Members, whose backgrounds lie in many scientific fields and who join their forces in ad hoc Working Parties to address the wide diversity of scientific problems as and when they arise and become subjects for public concern.
The findings of the Working Parties are often published and circulated as Academic Reports, freely accessible in most cases on our Internet site or during open day scientific conferences where debate from the floor is welcomed. Let me just cite a few recent examples : the Academy has made its opinions known on climate change, bibliometrics, ethics in science, patent rights and recently on the consequences of the disaster at Fukushima, Japan where a final Report will soon be issued.
We shall also be seeing in the near future a special heading in one of France's major newspapers, where Fellow Members can express their feelings and opinions on current scientific issues. My personal wish here is that other, similar opportunities will be developed to provide demonstrable and relevant answers to the questions that our fellow citizens are raising.

Maintaining and reinforcing the trust the French place in the Académie des sciences and winning over those who still entertain a degree of doubt, is one of the objectives in our remit, which we can hopefully attain thanks to the high quality of the studies our Members undertake and the constant policy to ensure a measured and responsible framing of opinion in the media.

Bernard MEUNIER