22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Science is Culture, Not Just Methods
The fruitful pursuit of scientific truth and its application, once discovered, is not just a matter of talented individuals well trained in foreign universities and supplied with the equipment they desire. These are very important, but the cultivation of science is a collective undertaking [written as 'understanding'! and success in it depends on an appropriate social structurc. This social structure is the scientific community and its specialised institutions. 1 
notes
notesThe research and application are important, but the communal nature of discovery and understanding are crucial.
22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Science is Human Power, Needing Guidance
It is against the background of conflict and confusion in the relations of science and society that we find ourselves confronted with a crisis in the history of mankind, and particularly in the history of human government. It is a crisis arising from the rapidly increasing power given to man by science. It is a crisis such as we are accustomed to leave to the arbitrement of sectional interests supported by shouts and cries. But it is one to which scientific inquiry can provide a solution. For... 1 notes
notesAnd science can provide the guidance through managing human beings through biological knowledge.
21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Scientific Truth is Truth Without Fear
Remember, then, that scientific thought is the guide of action; that the truth at which it arrives is not that which we can ideally contemplate without error, but that which we may act upon without fear; and you cannot fail to see that scientific thought is not an accompaniment of human progress, but human progress itself. 1 notes
notesIt is the best we have, not perfect, but progress.
26 SEP 2013 by ideonexus
Skepticism in Science has Grown
In 1982, polls showed that 44 percent of Americans believed God had created human beings in their present form. Thirty years later, the fraction of the population who are creationists is 46 percent.
In 1989, when “climate change” had just entered the public lexicon, 63 percent of Americans understood it was a problem. Almost 25 years later, that proportion is actually a bit lower, at 58 percent.
The timeline of these polls defines my career in science. In 1982 I was an undergraduate phy... 1 notes
notesOver time people are growing more skeptical of scientific truth.
24 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Scientific Truth Must Come Out of Controversy
Scientific truth, like puristic truth, must come about by controversy. Personally this view is abhorrent to me. It seems to mean that scientific truth must transcend the individual, that the best hope of science lies in its greatest minds being often brilliantly and determinedly wrong, but in opposition, with some third, eclectically minded, middle-of-the-road nonentity seizing the prize while the great fight for it, running off with it, and sticking it into a textbook for sophomores written ... 1 notes
notesThere is the ideal of scientific facts taught without passion and the reality of impassioned conflict within scientific exploration.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Law Strives for an Impossible Standard of Accuracy
When we are asked to swear in courts of law that we will tell
'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth', we
are being asked the impossible. It is simply beyond our powers.
Our memories are fallible; even scientific truth is merely an
approximation; and we are ignorant about nearly all of the
Universe. Nevertheless, a life may depend on our testimony. To
swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
to the limit of our abilities is a fair request. Without th...
1 When it asks us to swear to tell the whole truth.
