Science versus activism

Donna Laframboise will be speaking in Calgary Oct 17th on this topic:

... Science isn’t about achieving the answer you expect, want, or believe will support a cause to which you are sympathetic. It’s about recognizing that, in the words of the late great physicist Richard Feynman, you yourself are the “easiest person to fool” and that every precaution must therefore be taken.

A while back I pointed out that a 1976 book authored by the Club of Rome spoke approvingly of political machinations within the scientific community. Page 133 of the Signet paperback edition of RIO: Reshaping the International Order (Chapter 7, Section 5) includes the following quote:

In many branches of science there are radical movements. Increasingly, both in the rich and poor worlds, scientists are involved in active advocacy which they see as an intellectual and ethical duty. [bold added]

... for the past four decades... The public has had no way of knowing whether the expert currently being interviewed is a dispassionate investigator – or whether we’re being fed active advocacy by someone who considers themselves a member of a radical movement.