In defense of science

Every so often, I get friendly – and sometimes not so friendly – advice from friends and family about scientific research. The ivory tower view of academic research (“it’s all intellectual mumbo jumbo” or “sure, but how does that help you in real life?”) is one of the most persistent ideologies I come across. A recent 6minutes.be column (in Dutch) played the same card; I responded by arguing that (applied/social) science deals with real-life issues.