{credit}© Mohammed Yahia{/credit}

Science is the only way to pave the road to a real democracy following the revolutions of the Arab Spring, said Bruce Alberts, outgoing editor-in-chief of Science, during the opening of the annual Cairo Science Festival.

Speaking to various students and science enthusiasts from across the Egyptian capital, Alberts stressed that the key to the future is creating a “science culture” to change the way people think and approach life. He defines this as a shift in the way of thinking that is influenced by science and science education, and suggests that India may be the best place for Egypt to look for a role model.

“President Nehru always talked about having a scientific temper. That is a way of thinking influenced by science where people are tolerant and make decisions based on facts, pretty much like scientists,” he explains.

“The society of scientists is simple… it must inspire the single scientist to be independent, and the body of science to be tolerant ” says Alberts. “In Egypt today, there’s something important to learn from science. People have to be more tolerant and learn to live together or your democracy will fail. People have to move away from dogma and focus on evidence-based decisions.

“If you are going to have a successful democracy then your young people should learn to think like scientists. They don’t  need to be scientists, just learn how to think like one.”

This shift to a science culture will require a serious overhaul of science education that moves away from the current model of memorization of scientific facts to to focus on the actual practice of science. “This means that science education should have students solving problems in class, have them experience thinking like scientists.” This overhaul should extend from the very first levels of school and all the way into college.

Another lesson that Egypt and other developing countries can learn from India, says Alberts, is how to work to make the Internet available in as many places as possible, even the poorest villages furthest away from the main cities. India has been using optic fibres to increase Internet access in its villages. “You need to support institutions in Egypt that would connect science and technology to ways to improve the livelihoods of the poor. That was the core of your revolution,” he adds.

Finally, Alberts stressed how important it is to build up local institutions that can actually help Egypt retain all the talented people who often leave the country for greener pastures. “America is full of talented people who came here because they couldn’t be successful at home. You must set up institutions based on merit-based rewards and funding.”