SCAS News - 25 September, 2015

New Book by SCAS Academic Senate Member Helga Nowotny

In October, the new book by Helga Nowotny will appear on the shelves. The book, The Cunning of
Uncertainty (2015), will be published by Polity Press.

Helga Nowotny is a founding member and former President (2010-13) of the European Research
Council, and Professor Emerita of Social Studies of Science at ETH Zürich. She is a member of the
Swedish Collegium's Academic Senate.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Uncertainty is interwoven into human existence. It is a powerful incentive in the search for knowledge
and an inherent component of scientific research. We have developed many ways of coping with un-
certainty. We make promises, manage risks and make predictions to try to clear the mists and predict
ahead. But the future is inherently uncertain - and the mist that shrouds our path an inherent part of our
journey. The burning question is whether our societies can face up to uncertainty, learn to embrace it
and whether we can open up to a constantly evolving future.

In this new book, Helga Nowotny shows how research can thrive at the cusp of uncertainty. Science,
she argues, can eventually transform uncertainty into certainty, but into certainty which remains always
provisional.

Uncertainty is never completely static. It is constantly evolving. It encompasses geological time scales and,
at the level of human experience, split-second changes as cells divide. Life and death decisions are taken in
the blink of the eye, while human interactions with the natural environment may reveal their impact over
millennia.

Uncertainty is cunning. It appears at unexpected moments, it shuns the straight line, takes the oblique route
and sometimes the unexpected short-cut. As we acknowledge the cunning of uncertainty, its threats retreat.
We accept that any scientific inquiry must produce results that are provisional and uncertain. This message is
vital for politicians and policy-makers: do not be tempted by small, short-term, controllable gains to the
exclusion of uncertain, high-gain opportunities.

Wide-ranging in its use of examples and enriched by the author’s experience as President of the European
Research Council, one of the world’s leading funding organisations for fundamental research. The Cunning
of Uncertainty is a must-read for students and scholars of all disciplines, politicians, policy-makers and
anyone concerned with the fundamental role of knowledge and science in our societies today."


Read more about Helga Nowotny
Read more about the book