Nexus - 0904 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Obviously, under these circumstances, we cannot know how It is at least deserved, and, in fact, the evidence is much more con- many cases of suppression actually occur or how many potential demnatory than that. Society does not condone blackballing, whistleblowers never step forward. Martin calls it a "conspiracy threats, intimidation tactics, slander or attempts to abridge free of silence" speech. We have seen them all. It is distasteful to admit that In the case of Dewey McLean, we see how scientists with com- Alvarez was correct: science is not a truly democratic institution. peting ideas are ridiculed, threatened and shunned by the propo- There is no open, free access or public forum, and it only partially nents of the "winning" theory. McLean's work involved the KT _ functions on the principle of merit. That is the unvarnished truth. extinctions that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. You have to "play the game", and that is a long, involved process Two theories competed for acceptance in the 1980s. McLean _ of jumping through the right hoops in the right way and keeping originated one of them, which posited that a series of volcanic your doubts to yourself. eruptions caused a massive greenhouse effect that radically British biologist Warwick Collins went flying headlong into the changed the Earth's climate. Nobel physicist Luis Alvarez, who meat grinder of scientific politics, naively proposing that sexual claimed that an asteroid had slammed into the Earth, causing the selection was an anomaly of Darwinian theory. He studied under major climatic change, put forth the other theory. This turned into _ the prestigious Darwinist professor, John Maynard Smith. Collins a fiercely competitive battle when the opposing theories were first was invited by eminent geneticist John Thoday to give an expand- presented at a conference in Canada in 1981. ed version of his paper to an international It is clear from reading McLean's accounts conference on population genetics. He of the bitter debates that he was taken aback unwittingly accepted and let Professor Smith bec Alvarez was a Nobel Prize-winning review the paper prior to his addressing the physicist and not a geologist. He wrote: conference. In a moment that drips with Unfortunately, brutal politics at that Shakespearean drama, Professor Smith meeting cast the theoreticians into a pulled the rug out from under his protégé by white-hot crucible of scientific debate in which compromise seemed impossible, taking the floor as Collins was about to Big Science is now a deliver his paper. Smith thoroughly in which one theory must die... bloated, intensely denounced the contents of the presentation ae . ° . Collins was about to deliver. McLean has publicly stated that Alvarez political institution This happened in 1976. Thereafter, the took him aside during a coffee break and that employs the same humiliated Collins found it impossible to get threatened to destroy his career. This claim ° . a paper published. His last attempt was in seems borne out by this extract from an strategies and public 1994; that paper was rejected without intimidating letter that Alvarez sent to relations gimmicks as any justification. Collins has since the National Academy of Sciences in . ° dropped out of biology. (See Richard Big Business and Big Government. 1984: Milton's website, http://www.alterna- So Dewey is now a forgotten per- tivescience.com.) son in the field, or when he is remembered it is only for a few good laughs at the cocktail party at the end of the Deweyless meet- ing... I'm sorry to see you going down the Dewey McLean lane. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF BIG SCIENCE Halton Arp, a scientist with the Max Planck Institute in Germany, captured the confusion and angst of the emerg- ing situation in the title of an essay published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration (vol. 14, no. 3, p. 447): "What Has Science Come To?" He Do these tactics sound like science or the machinations of Tony, the mob boss in The Sopranos? Luis Alvarez has also been quoted as saying: does not mince words: There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that some ...what most people accept today as fundamental scientific second-rate guy has as much right to an opinion as Fermi. knowledge is barely distinguishable from what organised (Daniel S. Greenberg, The Politics of Pure Science, religion became some centuries ago. The most damaging University of Chicago Press, 1967; Dewey McLean's web- aspect of science today is widely promulgated theories that page link, "Dinosaur Volcano Greenhouse Extinction") are contradicted by observation and experiment. In both wdatad bys cuth and than dofandod hw Big Science is now a bloated, intensely political institution that employs the same strategies and public relations gimmicks as Big Business and Big Government. does not mince words: ...what most people accept today as fundamental scientific knowledge is barely distinguishable from what organised religion became some centuries ago. The most damaging aspect of science today is widely promulgated theories that are contradicted by observation and experiment. In both cases, a story is mandated by authority and then defended by educational, economic and sociopolitical agencies. Really! And these are supposed to be the good guys in the white hats who are going to save us! We saw how quickly and without conscience evolutionist Richard Dawkins moved to stop the publication of Milton's anti- Darwin article. Being a journalist is how Milton puts bread on the table—but too bad, because science is going to muscle its way forward under the banner of a bizarre kind of self-appointed autocracy, and the "kings" and "queens" sitting on the thrones of national institutes and foundations and their "nobility" (Nobel win- ners), supported by their professorial minions in the universities, shall hear neither of dissent nor of contrary theory. Is this too strong a metaphor? Perhaps it is not strong enough. The obvious point is that science is no longer the impartial, apolitical institution it once was. Big Science is now a bloated, intensely political institution that employs the same strategies and public relations gimmicks as Big Business and Big Government. Halton Arp sees a more insidious side to it: ..although religion may have borrowed some of the jargon of science, science, more importantly, has adopted the methods of religion. 46 ¢ NEXUS JUNE - JULY 2002 Continued on page 52 www.nexusmagazine.com