Those of us fortunate to be cosmic researchers at this point in the history of earth civilization find ourselves immersed in an intense period of exploration, a slackening of which is not yet foreseen. Our descendents may well look back on the last half of the 20th century as the golden age of astrophysics. Or will they?

The 1970s also saw a widening of the gap between scientists and the rest of society. Public understanding of science may be on the rise, but science itself is advancing even more rapidly. The same can be said of technology. Quick scans of the daily newspapers demonstrate the public to be rightfully confused and often genuinely frightened regarding the highly technical society we've created.

Increasing public alienation towards science is not really caused by the type of society now established, for, along with numerous problems, technology clearly offers many indispensable creature comforts. Nor is the public currently uninterested in science. The foremost reason for the public's unrest toward science lies primarily with the scientists. With few exceptions, scientists are no longer sharing knowledge, no longer teaching well, no longer willing to grant a small fraction of their time to what might be called scientific citizenship. Like many other segments of society in the 1970s, scientists have generally adopted a selfishness bordering on elitism.

Obsessed with research and the grantsmanship necessary to fund it, scientists have effectively withdrawn into their laboratories, computer rooms, and think tanks. Doing largely their own thing, they specialize these days to an anomalously high degree. Sure, some scientists are crossing boundaries as research necessarily becomes more interdisciplinary, but few of them are willing to generalize, to construct but few of them are willing to generalize, to construct the big picture. It seems that the grand synthesizers have become virtually extinct.

Historians of the far future may indeed regard the last half of the 20th century as an especially rich period of scientific discovery, but they may also recognize it to have been the time when public attitudes toward science began taking a turn for the worse. To combat the continuation of this latter trend, the institution of science must alter its practitioners spend some time sharing knowledge with the public in an understandable manner. In the event this not be done--in the event that scientists maintain their currently elite posture--then evolution will take its course. Whatever small efforts now exist to inform the public will continue to deteriorate. Understanding of science will diminish. And most unfortunately, appreciatior for science will terminate. Scientists may well have the capability to unlock secrets of the universe, but no one--neither governments nor societies--will have any desire to support or tolerate such an endeavor.

Should scientists fail to inform, to share, to teach, then it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that our descendents are destined to inhabit, for better or worse, a scienceless society.

Eric J. Chaisson is associate professor of Astronomy.