WHAT IS TODAYS MOST IMPORTANT UNREPORTED STORY?
Margaret Wertheim Response to Paul Davies I appreciate Paul Davies’ response to my question “What is science, and do indigenous kniowledge systems also contain a genuine scientific understanding of the world?” My point in raising this question is not to suggest that Western science is not universal – clearly the same law of gravity operates in the deserts of central Australia as operates in the labs of Caltech. In that sense Western science is indeed something that every culture can share and benefit from, if they so choose. At issue here is really the reverse question: Might there also be discoveries about the way the world works that have been made by other cultures, that we in the West have not yet come to – knowledge that we in turn might benefit from? One example here is the Aboriginal tradition of fire burning. It is now known that Aboriginal people traditionally managed the land and its native flora and fauna by complex patterns of burning. Given the huge risk of out-of-control
