SCIENCE IS EVERY BIT AS HUMAN AS OTHER FIELDS
The public also places too much faith in science as an “objective quest for truth” that operates in a culturally independent way. (At least this was once the case.)? This is not the case.? Science is a human activity, and as such, it’s as susceptible to human foibles as any of the other fields.??
??????????? James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, shocked the public in his 1968 autobiography “The Double Helix.”? In this scientific biography (it’s really a biography of the DNA molecule) he gave a brutally honest account of how science really works. ?(His original working title for the book “Honest Jim”.? He considered the discover of DNA a race between scientists to grab the glory and get the Nobel Prize.? In this pursuit, he stepped on a lot of toes.? In the book he also reported that during his efforts to make the most important discovery of the century, he spent an equal amount of time trying to get a girlfriend (he was 23 at the time.)?? Watson continued to shock the public with periodic controversial announcements throughout his career.?
??????????? Stephen J. Gould points out the influence of cultural bias on nineteenth century science in his book “The Mismeasure of Man.”? He points out that white European males of the time measured various anatomical features of skeletons and drew conclusions about the superiority of their own group and used science to “prove” the inferiority of other groups.? The all-too-human scientist must attempt to ignore their own bias, but they will always be a part of culture and biases of their time.? Scientists must always guard against these biases and at the same time admit that they inevitably exist.? This tendency is balanced by science’s self-correcting nature.?
??????????? Sometimes science does step outside its realm, and inserts itself into other fields.? There are spectacular examples of the misuse of science like social Darwinism and eugenics.?
??????????? Science is neither moral or immoral - it is amoral.? A physicist can study nuclear fission?? The ethical review of science and its technological application best comes from outside the field.? In biology, the entire field of bioethics developed to apply philosophical and ethical analysis to new discoveries.?
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??????????? And again, to stress the human side of the field, science, especially contemporary science, is a team effort.? The public perception of a little man in a white coat laboring in obscurity in a dark lab does not represent reality.? Science is very social.? There are colleagues and collaborators and international meetings (usually in somewhere like Paris or Helsinki or San Francisco or Hawaii.)
??????????? Every time that I taught molecular biology I required every student to read “The Double Helix” to recognize this point.? And when Watson was active, I had students go to see him speak when he was in the Bay Area.? (He could always be depended upon to shock them.)? Science has been extraordinarily successful – but it is carried out by humans.? You are as likely to encounter “I hope that guy’s idea is wrong because he’s such a jerk” as often as “let’s objectively evaluate this idea.”? Despite that, reality exists outside of human perception (despite what post-modernist deconstructionist thinking might suggest) and human foibles will ultimately fall away in the face of reality.? The process ultimately triumphs and reveals reality.? ????
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3 个月I’ve read it and I’ve read every biography of Franklin. It’s a take down piece - meant to solidly his position and designed to minimize Franklins contribution. It presents the “myth” of photo 51 as a side show so he doesn’t even mention that they used a report she sent to Perutz, who passed it to Bragg who gave it to Watson and Crick. Which they had to have to come up with the structure. In todays world she would have been a co-author. It also doesn’t mention that via a “gentlemen’s agreement” Franklin could no longer work on DNA. It’s a real “victor writes the history book”. I would only recommend it while also reading a Biography of Franklin… But as an example of the “good old boy” network in science - it’s an amazing book.
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3 个月Thanks Jim again for reminding me of: Stephen J. Gould's book, “The Mismeasure of Man.” I assigned excerpts from the book to all my science students in my Career and Technical Education Laboratory course for health professions. It illustrates how unethical immoral men can corrupt scientific method to promulgate great lies under the imperatorial of Science. Also Gould exposes how science is corrupted by opinion and bias, and this efforts at the the turn of the 2oth century became the basis of the anti-immigrant, refugee, and biased racism that fueled the Nazi movement in Germany and the American Bund/America First movement in American during the 1940's, McCarthyism and later the MAGMA movement today....both led to genocides of the 20th Century and insurrections at the Capitol on planned in January, 1940 and January 2020 over the corruption of the Electoral college, fueling a coup