Sense About Science

Projects

Sense about Science publishes guides to different areas of science in partnership with experts. These include: Making Sense of Uncertainty, Making Sense of Allergies, Making Sense of Drug Safety Science, Making Sense of Crime, Making Sense of Statistics, Making Sense of Screening and Making Sense of GM.

Sense about Science maintains database of over 6,000 UK scientists willing to use their expertise to help inform public debate. It also runs the Voice of Young Science programme to help early career scientists engage in public debates. Sense About Science hosts an annual lecture.

Since its founding, Sense about Science has contributed to UK public debates about such subjects as alternative medicine, "detoxification" products and detox diets, genetically modified food, avian influenza, chemicals and health, "electrosmog", vaccination, weather and climate, nuclear power, and the use and utility of peer review. Sense about Science encourages scientists to explain to the public the value of peer review in determining which reports should be taken seriously. Director Tracey Brown describes such critical thinking as crucial to preventing public health scares based on unpublished information.

The Sense About Science Annual Lecture

Sense about Science hosts an annual lecture. Past speakers have been:

The John Maddox Prize

Sense about Science also promotes the John Maddox Prize:

The John Maddox Prize for standing up for science rewards an individual who has promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest. Its emphasis is on those who have faced difficulty or hostility in doing so. Nominations of active researchers who have yet to receive recognition for their public-interest work are particularly welcomed.

Past winners are:

AllTrials

The AllTrials campaign calls for all past and present clinical trials to be registered and their full methods and summary results reported.

AllTrials is an international initiative of Bad Science, BMJ, Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, Cochrane Collaboration, James Lind Initiative, PLOS and Sense About Science and is being led in the US by Sense About Science USA, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice.

As of November 2015, The AllTrials petition has been signed by 86734 people and 626 organisations.

Ask for Evidence

Ask for Evidence was launched by Sense About Science in 2011. It is a campaign that helps people request for themselves the evidence behind news stories, marketing claims and policies. The campaign has received funding from The Wellcome Trust and is endorsed by figures such as Dara Ó Briain and Derren Brown.

Keep Libel Laws Out of Science

Sense About Science launched the Keep Libel Laws out of Science campaign in June 2009 in defence of a member of its board of trustees, author and journalist Simon Singh, who has been sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association. They issued a statement entitled "The law has no place in scientific disputes", which was signed by many people representing science, medicine, journalism, publishing, arts, humanities, entertainment, sceptics, campaign groups and law. In April 2010, the BCA lost this case with the court accepting that criticism of the BCA concerning its promotion of bogus treatments was fair comment.

In December 2009, Sense About Science, Index on Censorship and English PEN launched the Libel Reform Campaign. The Defamation Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013 and came into force on 1 January 2014.

The Trust actively campaigns in support of various causes. It has issued a statement signed by over 35 scientists asking the WHO to condemn homeopathy for diseases such as HIV.

Reception

Sense about Science and their publications have been cited a number of times in the popular press, most notably for encouraging celebrities and the public to think critically about scientific claims, criticizing marketing unsupported by research, decrying the unsubstantiated claims of homeopathy, supporting genetically modified crops, criticising 'do-it-yourself' health testing, denouncing detox products, warning against 'miracle cures', and promoting public understanding of peer review. They have received positive coverage in publications from the Royal Society and the U.S. National Science Foundation, and in the writings of scientists such as Ben Goldacre and Steven Novella.

Lord Taverne, chairman of Sense About Science, has criticised campaigns to ban plastic bags as counter-productive and being based on "bad science".

Anti-genetic-modification campaigners and academics have criticised Sense About Science for what they view as a failure to disclose industry connections of some advisers, and Private Eye reported that it had seen a draft of the Making Sense of GM guide that included Monsanto Company's former director of scientific affairs as an author. Tracey Brown, managing director of Sense About Science, rebutted these claims on the SAS website.

Journalist George Monbiot has commented on the connections Tracey Brown, Dr Michael FitzPatrick, assistant director Ellen Raphael and others working with Sense About Science have with the former Revolutionary Communist Party and Living Marxism magazine. Claims of a Living Marxist 'network' have been denied.

Homeopath Peter Fisher criticised Sense About Science, who have been working closely with NHS primary care trusts on the issue of funding for homeopathy, for being funded by the pharmaceutical industry; SAS responded in a statement to Channel 4 News that "Peter Fisher's desperate comments show about as much grasp of reality as the homeopathic medicine he sells."

Funding

Sense about Science's principal funding is through grants and donations in respect of its core aims. In its funding policy it states: "Donations do not entitle any individual or organisation to decision-making authority. External funding will not divert Sense About Science from its agreed aims and values".

Funding for the trust has been increasing. Some is derived from industrial organizations engaged in scientific dispute, clinical trials and research for which SAS is supportive (e.g. genetically modified crops) as well as major publishing houses. For example, for the fiscal year ending 5 April 2008, the trust received £145,902 in donations. Disclosed corporate donations comprised £88,000 with pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca donating £35,000. Previous donations included other pharmaceutical industries such as Pfizer. This dependency has now been diminished since for the fiscal year ending April 2010, the trust received £183,971 in donations of which £17,500 was derived from the pharmaceutical industry (Unilever and G E Healthcare). In 2011 the amount diminished further to less than 6% funding derived from industry sources (the trust received £268,184 in donations with £15,000 from industry) with the rest derived from Science Bodies and individuals.

Trustees

As of November 2015, the trustees of Sense About Science are:

Advisory Board

The charity has an advisory board, which includes: Professor John Adams, Mr Richard Ayre, Professor Peter Atkins, Professor Sir Colin Berry FMedSci, Professor Colin Blakemore FMedSci FRS, Professor Gustav Born FRS, Professor Sir Robert Boyd FMedSci, Professor John Coggins, Professor Phil Dale OBE, Professor Adrian Dixon FMedSci, Dr Simon Festing, Dr Ron Fraser, Mr David Allen Green, Dr Irene Hames, Dr Evan Harris, Lord Hunt of Chesterton FRS, Lord Jenkin of Roding, Professor Trevor M Jones CBE, Sir David King FRS, Professor Sir Peter Lachmann FRS FMedSci, Dr Stephen Ladyman, Ms Prue Leith OBE, Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FRS, Professor Julian Ma, Professor Alan Malcolm, Professor Vivian Moses, Professor Sir Keith Peters FRS PMedSci, Lord Plumb of Coleshill DL, Dr Ian Ragan, Dr Matt Ridley FMedSci, Professor Raymond Tallis FMedSci, Professor Anthony Trewavas FRS, Lord Turnberg of Cheadle FMedSci, Dr Roger Turner, Professor Simon Wessely FMedSci and Professor Michael Wilson.