Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Tuesday
May 2,2000
Volume 101, Issue 143
Emerald
Scientists are not like other
people — which is good, be
cause nobody wants a histo
rian designing fluid-dynam
ics computer simulations.
And in large part, nobody wants
a scientist critically evaluating the
reign of Mad King George as a func
tion of having 15 chil
linked immunosorbent assay
world. Do these go to people who
experiment for years using estab
lished principles and facts? Not ex
actly. Conventional wisdom in sci
ence is that Nobel Prizes are
awarded to people who discover
phenomena that do not make
sense. Usually, they are per
uien.
As much of a pain as *
it is for scientists and
normal people to talk
to and understand each
other, though, obvious
ly we need to commu- I
nicate. Moreover, the I
definite differences be-1
tween how scientists |
and “nnns" think' arp S
secured tor these heretical
® ideas, and then they prove
that they’ve been right the
whole time.
The FLA is such a phe
nomenon. Opponents of it
offer many valid reasons for
I why we should not support
| corporate members on our
1 monitoring organization’s
l! Knorrl Mo+lirollir
artificial, and we could JOTlClthcifl monitoring” is something
all benefit from sharing * fmkpr that Nike already has and
our perspectives. uruocr will always have control
In fact, the scientific nvpr- thp fart tVmt it ic not ai_
method would be useful in some of
the policy decisions that have to be
made at the University. This can be
seen in the iiber-hype of Nike CEO
Phil Knight’s response to the Uni
versity’s joining the Worker Rights
Consortium.
The scientific method is sup
posed to be a dynamic system for
evaluating any testable hypothesis.
Though any system can be manipu
lated — and the scientific method
is no exception — the validity of
the method is still true, and it can
be as useful to other people as it is
to scientists.
Among Knight’s opinions about
the issue, apparently he and Nike
would rather have their factories
monitored by the Fair Labor Asso
ciation than by the WRC. Not that
he would necessarily change his
multimillionaire mind if we joined
both groups, but would it be all that
bad if we did?
I have read as many arguments
against the FLA as you have. Some
are ridiculous; some are logical.
But none are tested. I bet many sci
entists would argue for joining the
FLA if for no other reason than for
the sake of experimentation. Sure,
in science we like things to make
sense based on what we already
know. But that’s not to say that
nothing interesting happens.
For example, every year, the sci
entific community awaits the
awarding of the Nobel Prizes to the
Michael Jordans of the enzyme
ways congruent with our percep
tion of workers’ rights is entirely
the problem.
For a moment, let’s think about
what’s important. Is the flavor of
the board so critical, or do we sim
ply care that foreign workers are
not taken advantage of?
The 1997 Nobel Laureate in
Medicine was mocked for years be
cause he tried to prove that certain
communicable diseases are not
caused by any life form. Eventually
he was vindicated, and we now be
lieve that things such as mad-cow
and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases are
in fact caused by infectious, non
living, biologically produced, mu
tant proteins. It was counterintu
itive for everyone at first. But
clearly, it wasn’t wrong.
Counterintuitive or not, will it
hurt to try the FLA too? Must we be
so cynical to say that just because
industry board members are in
volved, workers everywhere will
be worse off for generations?
Nothing is totally wrong unless
you prove it. And you can’t prove
anything without an experiment or
two. If we join the FLA, the worst
that will happen is that it won’t do
as good of a job as the WRC. But
what if it’s better?
We’ll never know until we try.
Jonathan Gruber is a columnist for the Ore
gon Daily Emerald. His views do not neces
sarily represent those of the Emerald. He
can be reached via e-mail jgruber@
gladstone.uoregon.edu.