Was listening to NewsRadio yesterday and just about fell out of the truck...
World Today..Professorial Debate over Teaching Science
EMILY BOURKE: Do they not have a point though, in that there are some scientific theories, such as those around climate change, that are contested, that are the subject of vigorous scientific debate and their argument about the subjectivity of science is borne out there?
JOHN RICE: We have no problem with people pointing out that science is a contestable thing, and you have only to look at its history to see that there were great and vigorous debates. And in a climate change situation of course we are in a situation where, although some people want to say that the science is settled, clearly with the level of argument that's going on around the place, there are a lot of things which are not settled.
And I think that's all perfectly appropriate. If that's the point that people want to make, they should make it and we're happy for them to make it.
But if they want to say that scientific knowledge in itself is nothing other than a consensus among a group of scientists, that is wrong. That vastly oversimplifies what has happened in order for people to say that science is settled in a whole lot of respects.
warms the heart...sainer people are returning to the argument!