Nature Has the Answers

November 2001 page 83

In reviewing John Ziman's book Real Science: What It Is, and What It Means, Craig McConnell and Robert H. March ( Physics Today, May 2001, page 57) explain that the "objectivity" of research resides "not in the individuals who practice it but in the scientific community. . . ." Acceptance is conferred by the scientific community, objectivity from the natural world, against which all scientific ideas are eventually tested. Individuals may be deluded; the community may be ruled for a while by religion or politics; but in the end, Nature settles matters.

Charles W. McCutchen

Bethesda, Maryland

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