快猫短视频

鈥榮 epic history of science ranges from the astronomers of ancient Babylon to today鈥檚 geneticists and particle physicists. But it is no ordinary account of how scientific knowledge has accumulated. Instead, Fara focuses on how science has been guided and controlled by social and political factors. Her aim is to debunk the notion of science as an objective search for truth.

Fara writes, for example, that the ancient Greeks鈥� attempts to understand the cosmos were inextricably entwined with their view of it as a divine, therefore mathematically perfect, creation. Linnaeus鈥檚 plant classification system reflected 18th-century social prejudices by prioritising male reproductive organs. Today鈥檚 鈥渂ig science鈥� is bound to the 鈥渇ive 鈥楳鈥檚鈥�: money, manpower, the military, machines and the media.

Science is an impressive antidote to the idea of scientific endeavour as a straight line of progress. Yet Fara takes it too far by ignoring how the knowledge produced relates to the external world: she treats all theories as equal, regardless of the evidence. For instance, when arguing that doctors rejected the 鈥渁nimal magnetism鈥� therapies of Franz Mesmer in the 19th century because they feared he was stealing their patients, she discounts the lack of a rational explanation for his theories and does not mention that .

A more worrying case is Fara鈥檚 interpretation of global warming. She argues that the theory arose because selling doomsday scenarios helps researchers to win funding. And putting the blame on humanity also enables scientists to 鈥渇ulfil the same psychological needs as religious prophets who preached that the end of the world represents God鈥檚 punishment of the sinful鈥�. She does not appear to acknowledge that scientists might be convinced by global warming because it is actually happening.

The book is a valuable reminder that science is inevitably a product of the people who carry it out, and that the way we explain the world cannot be separated from social prejudices and political priorities. This alone, though, does not explain science鈥檚 success. Science has become so dominant because it works. Medicines do save lives, aeroplanes do fly, nuclear bombs do explode. Ignoring this is misguided, and in some cases downright dangerous.