Five British scientists who could help with March For Science London’s funding problem
There is a war going on. It’s a War on Progress, where knowledge and reason stand on one side, and ignorance and superstition stand on the other. You can stand on the side of knowledge and reason with the London March For Science on April 22nd (or if you’re an idiot you can stand on the other side).
Money, as ever, is a problem: March For Science London needs £8,000 to cover the permissions, security and the stage and speakers in Parliament Square. Individual donors like me have taken it almost half way, and if everyone employed in science, technology, engineering and medicine (NO, NOT YOU HOMEOPATHY) in the UK donated £1, the March could probably go on for a week. Perhaps they need some inspiration?
There are many smart people who’ve done a lot to popularise science in the UK over the past decade, and some of them have done very well out of it. There are the celebrity science fans (and ex-scientists) like Dara Ó Briain and Tony Robinson (who should also be helping), but the real leaders here should be the top scientists and engineers who have become household names and might have a few pennies down the back of their sofas.
Britain created and hosts many of the world’s leading scientists, making it tough to pick five, so don’t be limited by this very arbitrary selection. I’ve aimed for the wealthiest and most well-known, and I’m giving a free pass to Sir Tim Berners-Lee for inventing the World Wide Web and making all this possible.
So give them a tweet or hit up their Facebook pages to let them know that science needs their help now, more than ever . They can do a lot to raise awareness, but this is one situation where a simple intervention could make a lot of difference.
(Note: I’m not affiliated in any way with March For Science London).
1 Professor Brian Cox @ProfBrianCox PBC OBE is the face of modern science, a boy-band Joe 90 who had physics downloaded into his brain for a mission and decided to stick with it. Coxy never stops promoting science and reason, he’s got no time for woo, and surely he can spare a few quid out of the royalties from D-Ream and Dare or his collection of excellent pop-science books. I’m sure his mate Dara Ó Briain (Facebook Dara Ó Briain) could chip in too.
2 Professor Alice Roberts @theAliceRoberts As Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham, the March for Science London should be a high priority event for one of the most familiar female scientific faces in Britain. A solid publishing history should see her able to contribute to the march’s survival, and her connections could certainly help further.
3 Professor Stephen Hawking @StephenHawking8 Let’s not muck about: the World’s Most Famous Scientist(TM) has an estimated worth of £16 million. A Brief History Of Time has sold more than 10 million copies in 20 years. If he hasn’t spent it all on tiny spaceships to Proxima Centauri and he’s got time between baiting Donald Trump (who’s almost like an antimatter version of Hawking), he could really help out.
4 Professor Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins The phrase ‘militant atheist’ was coined for Dawkins, but the dangerous rise in religious fundamentalism is a key front in the War on Progress (Christian fundamentalists just practice their oppression more quietly than the Islamic kind), and the scourge of Twitter is undoubtedly one of our generals. Richard Dawkins had a net worth estimated at £108 million in 2012, and while The Devil’s Chaplain might argue that March For Science London should just bow to evolutionary pressures if it can’t compete, I’m hoping he doesn’t really follow that sort of debased neo-Darwinism.
5 Dame Jane Goodall @JaneGoodallInst She’s not renowned for her wealth, and the godmother of primatology probably spends as she has on studying and saving chimpanzees. Conservation is another key battleground in the War on Progress, and she’s a key figure in British science who could no doubt motivate some benefactors to give the march a boost. The British-born scientist is promoting the Washington DC March For Science through the Jane Goodall Institute. Britain needs you help too!
You made it to the end. You’re probably in the top 25%, so why not reward yourself by giving £5 to March For Science London?
