Education and peace go together; plus the best 2015 papers of the journal Temperature

Abstract

As I am writing this editorial, the United States is preparing for the presidential election. I have no appetite to talk about this particular election, but I would like to share some of my thoughts about the civil position of scientists, as citizens of their countries. How do scientists vote? Scientists are strange critters who typically spend their entire lives studying. First, they study formally for years and years—to obtain their degrees. Then they study informally for the rest of their lives—just because. In general, studying for a lifetime is not the easiest path one can select; it takes courage and conviction. One would expect that people who have chosen this path would vote for education-friendly candidates, parties, and propositions. One of my friends, Mikl os Sz ekely, professor emeritus at the University of P ecs Medical School in Hungary, told me about his dream to see each generation of Hungarian children receiving a better education than the previous, to see Hungary becoming a better country with each generation. Mikl os is a son of a teacher and a father of two teachers. (He is also a co-winner of one of the Temperature’s awards; see below.) Many scientists in other countries think in a similar way. They want to see a society that instead of (or at least in addition to) celebrating rock stars, football stars, and five-star generals, celebrates teachers—those who help children to discover stars, real stars. So how does one determine which party, program, or candidate is more education-friendly? To obtain a comprehensive answer to this question one would need to carefully consider a great number of factors. I will talk about only one of these factors, which I believe is often overlooked. It is the military agenda of the party or candidate. What? What does the military agenda have to do with education?