Sky-High Radiation Found in Fukushima Fish

[longship]

27. Straw man speaking there. Updated.

Science does inform with facts. But what science does most importantly, is ask questions. Both the facts -- the data -- and the questions are equally important.

Please resist the temptation to portray science as some monolithic, unchanging enterprise. It just isn't so.

I cannot think of any expression of the ideals of science more than those expressed by humanist-mathematician Jacob Bronowski in his BBC/PBS series, The Ascent of Man. It forms the capstone of the episode entitled, Knowledge or Certainty. Here it is:

And, for those who cannot view it all, here is what he said:

“There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the ends justifies the means, that push button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit, the assertion of dogma that closes the mind and turns nations and civilizations into a regiment of ghosts -- obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.

It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance, it was done by dogma, it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ: Think it possible you may be mistaken."

I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.”

That, DUers, expresses what science is about.

On edit: I am tempted to post this as an OP, given the lesson that Bronowski is relating here, is one we should never forget. Even here, I see ones who do not see what's important.