The UK governments new chief scientific adviser, Sir Mark Walport, set out his priorities just after assuming office earlier this year. Top of his list was to "ensure that scientific knowledge translates to economic growth". And at that very first point, one suspects, the author of a new book would part company with the establishment view represented by the government's top scientist. Andrew Simms, a long-standing maverick economist and science-watcher, is worried that a universal preoccupation with the concept of "growth" has blinded us to the potential for a sustainable future in which many of today's apparent difficulties can be tackled through already-known science and engineering. And through the application of a strong dose of what he would term common sense.
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机译：英国政府新任首席科学顾问马克·沃尔波特爵士（Sir Mark Walport）于今年初上任后就确定了他的工作重点。他的首要任务是“确保科学知识转化为经济增长”。有人怀疑，在一开始的时候，一本新书的作者将以政府最高科学家代表的建立观点与公司分道扬part。长期处于特立独行的经济学家和科学观察家的安德鲁·西姆斯（Andrew Simms）担心，普遍关注“增长”的概念使我们对可持续未来的潜力视而不见，在这种情况下，当今许多明显的困难可以通过已经解决的方式解决：众所周知的科学和工程。并且通过大量使用他称之为常识的东西。
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