Thursday, November 08, 2012

'Twas ever thus …

… Steven Shapin reviews ‘The Pseudoscience Wars’ by Michael Gordin — LRB 8 November 2012.

The difference now is that we have the scientists themselves engaging in catastrophism, what with all the ecological doom stories we are regularly treated to, and in fact, as this review points out, they were already engaging in it back in the '50s, with their nuclear doomsday scenarios. I don't know where the idea comes from that scientists are somehow immune to the weaknesses of other mortals — probably from the scientists themselves.

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