A crisis looms over the scientific enterprise. Not a day passes without news of retractions, failed replications, fraudulent peer reviews, or misinformed science-based policies. The social implications are enormous, yet this crisis has remained largely uncharted—until now.
In Science on the Verge, luminaries in the field of post-normal science and scientific governance focus attention on worrying fault-lines in the use of science for policymaking, and the dramatic crisis within science itself. This provocative new volume in The Rightful Place of Science also explores the concepts that need to be unlearned, and the skills that must be relearned and enhanced, if we are to restore the legitimacy and integrity of science.
Scientists working in the policy arena are often naive about the impact of their findings. Producing rational results, scientists expect their research to be rationally accepted. The fundamental problem is that humans are not rational. We are emotional thinkers. Science on the Verge exposes many of the fallacies in science applied to societal problems. No matter how good the science, public issues are always ideological and political. --Joseph A. Tainter, Professor of Sustainability, Utah State University
It is time that a book pulls no punches on the inadequate state of science on the verge of collapse. This attack does not aim to knockout with one blow bad practice of contemporary science; it rather circles the issue and delivers body blows until the job is done.... It starts with the epidemic of retractions and failure across science. It debunks evidence-based science. It goes on to analyze the history of how science got into this mess. Gratuitous mathematization is exposed and stands naked. And finally attitudes to doubt and certainty are laid bare, as contemporary science loses every round, left on the verge of collapse. --Timothy Allen, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison
A major contribution, this book approaches the current crisis of scientific practices with deep insights on the entanglement of science, policy, and ethics. --Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Professor, Université Paris 1, Panthéon Sorbonne
