Throwing light on the coalface

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CIENCE is often porrayed as the pursuit of ruth and knowledge for beir own sake. Natural luman curiosity leads cientists to investigate ature in an unplanned and unplannable) way. fasty capitalists and poliicians may subsequently nisuse scientific discovries, but this could hardly e foreseen by the servants i science.

Obviously, there is some ruth in this view - we don't know what we're going to find out for else we wouldn't need to look) - but the questions that scientists ask, the things they are curious about, are not just the products of their individual minds. Scientists are products of class society, and their concerns tend to be those of that society.

A neat illustration of this is to be found in an extremely interesting book on the politics of science and technology • (S&T)* • with the case of the Davy Lamp.

This is popularly thought to have been a great lifesaver in 19th Century coal mining, but in fact its introduction heralded a period of more explosions from "fire-damp" (methane) and more deaths!

So what caused the problem of fire-damp?

When the veins of coal were mined, pillars of coal had to be left behind to stop the roofs collapsing. The weight of earth above these pillars compressed them and caused them to release methane (a highly inflammable gas) which had been trapped in the coal millions of xears before. This pressure also caused the floors to buckle upwards so the passageways of the mine gradually closed-up - a process known as "creep' Now, miners had been campaigning for adequate ventilation of mines since at least 1662, but that soluton would have been very expensive.

So the mine owners refused to see the problem of fire-damp as one of ventilation. They defined the problem as being one of finding a lamp that would work in methane-rich air without causing an immediate explosion.

And Sir Humphrey Davy, himself a member of the ruling classes, accepted this definition as the basis for his researches.

He discovered that the most explosive mixture of methane was one part to seven of air, but also that it needed a very high temperature to start the explosion.

If he lit a one to eight mixture in a long glass tube, it just burned quietly. The large area of glass cooled down the flame so the explosion could not get going.

So he enclosed the flame of a lamp with a fine metal gauze. Methane could enter the lamp and burn but the gauze conducted away the heat so the flame could not spread into the atmosphere outside and start an explosion.

Unfortunately, there were several ways the lamp could fail, but because they could usually be used safely the profit-hungry owners were happy - while more workers perished in unsafe mines. And the problem of methane explosions still exists now!

Other examples are given of capitalism affecting. the direction. of S&T development including (an eye-opener for me!) the field of molecular biology (my own field).

The Ford Foundation decided in the '30s to provide grants for research into the chemical basis of life, in the hope of making discoveries that could be exploited by capitalism -just as had happened in the field of basic physics.

The indirect result of this decision was the discovery of DNA, which leads to the new field of genetic engineering.

Also covered in the book are the use of science to bolster capitalist/racist/ sexist ideologies and the industrialisation and deskilling of scientific work (with the growth of science trade-unionism).

A fascinating and useful chapter on micro-electronies demystifies this so-called revolution.

It explains simply the technology behind computers (they are basically just very large and stupid adding machines) and then explains how capitalism is using micro-electronies to restructure industry, deskill and destroy jobs, cut wages, destroy unionisation - and restore profitability.

The final chapter is a critique of labour movement attitudes and policies towards S&T. It also sympathetically criticises the movement of opposition to, the excesses of capitalist, S&T, from the Luddites to the modern "alternative'. groups, which have a tendency to be "anti-machine' and "anti-science" • This failing has made it difficult for these groupings to form alliances with working people.

Trade unions and socialist • organisations are attacked for failing to confront a class- and sexdominated science, with the authors remarking that this has driven away many committed activists (Albury is a former member of the SWP).

This is the result of an attitude common to many Marxists and reformists, that sees S&T as basically progressive but misguided.

(The description of Marxism as "scientific socialism" has had the unfortunate side-effect of making it more difficult to see the shortcomings of science!)

This is a readable, informative, enjoyable book, critical but positive, and refreshingly free of jargon. And you don't need any O levels to understand it. I strongly recommend it!

*'Partial Progress" by David Albury and Joseph Schwartz (Pluto Press, £4.95).

Don't forget your birthday present to the only science column on the Left [see front page].

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Socialist Organiser no.121 February 24 1983 Page * Flat and heavy -are sonerous sure thin 1983 Page