Why Trust Science?

by Naomi Oreskes

  Craver, Carl F., and Lindley Darden. In Search of Mechanisms: Discoveries across the Life Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

  Crichton, Michael. “Aliens Cause Global Warming: A Caltech Lecture by Michael Crichton.” Michelin Lecture, Caltech, January 17, 2003. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/09/aliens-cause-global-warming-a-caltech-lecture-by-michael-crichton/.

  ________. State of Fear. Reprint edition. New York: Harper, 2009.

  Crichton, Michael. “Why Politicized Science Is Dangerous.” MichaelCrichton.Com (blog). Accessed October 13, 2018. http://www.michaelcrichton.com/why-politicized-science-is-dangerous/.

  Dant, Tim. Knowledge, Ideology, and Discourse: A Sociological Perspective. New York: Routledge, 2012. First edition, 1991.

  Darwin, Leonard. “The Geneticists’ Manifesto.” Eugenics Review 31, no. 4 (January 1940): 229–30. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2962351/.

  Daston, Lorraine J., and Peter Galison. Objectivity. New York: Zone Books, 2010.

  Davenport, Charles Benedict. Eugenics, the Science of Human Improvement by Better Breeding. New York: H. Holt and Company, 1910. http://archive.org/details/eugenicsscienceo00daverich.

  Donn, Jeff. “Medical Benefits of Dental Floss Unproven.” AP News, 2016. https://apnews.com/f7e66079d9ba4b4985d7af350619a9e3/medical-benefits-dental-floss-unproven.

  Douglas, Heather. Science, Policy, and the Value-Free Ideal. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009.

  Duesberg, Peter. “Peter Duesberg on AIDS.” Duesberg on AIDS. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.duesberg.com/.

  Duster, Troy. Backdoor to Eugenics. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2003.

  Dykes, Aaron. “Late Author Michael Crichton Warned of Global Warming’s Dangerous Parallels to Eugenics.” Infowars (blog), 2009. https://www.infowars.com/late-author-michael-crichton-warned-of-global-warmings-dangerous-parallels-to-eugenics/.

  The Editorial Board. “Opinion: Are Midwives Safer Than Doctors?” New York Times, December 14, 2014, sec. Opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/opinion/are-midwives-safer-than-doctors.html.

  Ekwurzel, Brenda. “Crichton Thriller State of Fear.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 2005. https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/solutions/fight-misinformation/crichton-thriller-state-of.html.

  Elliot, Kevin, and Ted Richards. Exploring Inductive Risk: Case Studies of Values in Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

  “Everything You Believed about Flossing Is a Lie.” TheWeek.com. August 2, 2016. http://theweek.com/speedreads/640513/everything-believed-about-flossing-lie.

  Feldman, Stacy. “Climate Scientists Defend IPCC Peer Review as Most Rigorous in History.” InsideClimate News, February 26, 2010. http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20100226/climate-scientists-defend-ipcc-peer-review-most-rigorous-history.

  Finlayson, Alan Christopher. Fishing for Truth: A Sociological Analysis of Northern Cod Stock Assessments from 1977 to 1990. St. John’s, NL: Institute of Social & Economic, 1994.

  “From the Editor.” Hedgehog Review. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2016_Fall_Editor.php.

  Hemment, Drew, Rebecca Ellis, and Brian Wynne. “Participatory Mass Observation and Citizen Science.” Leonardo 44, no. 1 (February 2011): 62–63. https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00096.

  Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. New York: Macmillan, 1869.

  ________. Memories of My Life. London: Methuen and Company, 1908. http://archive.org/details/memoriesmylife01galtgoog.

  Garber, Marjorie. Academic Instincts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

  “Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance: Evidence from Europe.” IMF. Accessed October 13, 2018. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Gender-Diversity-in-Senior-Positions-and-Firm-Performance-Evidence-from-Europe-43771.

  Ghani, Maseeh. “The Deceit of the Dental Health Industry and Some Potent Alternatives.” Collective Evolution, 2016. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/10/26/the-deceit-of-the-dental-health-industry-and-some-potent-alternatives/.

  Gould, Stephen Jay. “Carrie Buck’s Daughter.” Constitutional Commentary 2 (1985): 331–40.

  ________. Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History. Reprint edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1992.

  ________. Ever since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1992.

  Grant, Madison, and Henry Fairfield Osborn. The Passing of the Great Race; or, the Racial Basis of European History. 4th Rev. Ed., with a Documentary Supplement, with Prefaces by Henry Fairfield Osborn. New York: Scribner, 1922. http://archive.org/details/passingofgreatra00granuoft.

  Greenberg, Will. “Science Says Flossing Doesn’t Work. You’re Welcome.” Mother Jones (blog). Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/flossing-doesnt-work/.

  Hall, Granville Stanley. Adolescence. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1904. http://archive.org/details/adolescenceitsp01hallgoog.

  Hallam, A. Great Geological Controversies. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

  Hardin, Clyde L., and Alexander Rosenberg. “In Defense of Convergent Realism.” Philosophy of Science 49, no. 4 (December 1, 1982): 604–15. https://doi.org/10.1086/289080.

  Hare, Kristen. “How an AP Reporter Took down Flossing.” Poynter, August 4, 2016. http://www.poynter.org/2016/how-an-ap-reporter-took-down-flossing/424625/.

  Harrar, Sari. “Should You Bother to Floss Your Teeth?” Consumer Reports. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.consumerreports.org/beauty-personal-care/should-you-bother-to-floss-your-teeth/.

  “Haven’t Flossed Lately? Don’t Feel Too Bad: Evidence for the Benefits of Flossing Is ‘Weak, Very Unreliable.’ ” Los Angeles Times, August 2, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-floss-benefits-unproven-20160802-snap-story.html.

  Iizuka, Toshiaki, and Ginger Zhe Jin. “The Effect of Prescription Drug Advertising on Doctor Visits.” Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 14, no. 3 (September 1, 2005): 701–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9134.2005.00079.x.

  “The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act).” Office of the Historian. Accessed August 27, 2017. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921–1936/immigration-act.

  “Inmate Recalls How He Flossed Way to Freedom.” DeseretNews.com, August 14, 1994. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/369688/INMATE-RECALLS-HOW-HE-FLOSSED-WAY-TO-FREEDOM.html.

  Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing. “Transforming Leadership.” In The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. National Academies Press (US), 2011. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209867/.

  James, William. “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth.” Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 4, no. 6 (1907): 141–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/2012189.

  Jennings, Herbert Spencer. “Heredity and Environment.” Scientific Monthly 19, no. 3 (1924): 225–38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/7321.

  ________. The Biological Basis of Human Nature. 1st edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1930.

  Jones, Jo, William Mosher, and Kimberly Daniels. “Current Contraceptive Use in the United States, 2006–10, and Changes in Patterns of Use since 1995.” National Health Statistics Report. National Center for Health Statistics, October 18, 2012. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr060.pdf.

  Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.

  Kirch, W., and C. Schafii. “Misdiagnosis at a University Hospital in 4 Medical Eras.” Medicine 75, no. 1 (January 1996): 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005792-199601000-00004.

  Kuhl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  Ladher, Navjoyt. “Nutrition Science i
n the Media: You Are What You Read.” BMJ 353 (April 7, 2016): i1879. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i1879.

  Latour, Bruno. “One More Turn after the Social Turn: Easing Science Studies into the Non-Modern World,” 1992, 25.

  ________. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry 30, no. 2 (January 1, 2004): 225–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/421123.

  Latour, Bruno, Steve Woolgar, and Jonas Salk. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. 2nd edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.

  Laudan, Larry. “A Confutation of Convergent Realism.” Philosophy of Science 48, no. 1 (1981): 19–49. https://doi.org/10.2307/187066.

  Laudan, Rachel. From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650–1830. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

  Leiserowitz, Anthony, and Nicholas Smith. “Knowledge of Climate Change across Global Warming’s Six Americas.” Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2010. http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/knowledge-of-climate-change-across-global-warmings-six-americas/.

  Levine, Timothy. “The Last Word on Flossing Is Two Words: Pascal’s Wager.” Chicago Tribune: Digital Edition. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/tribune/article_popover.aspx?guid=e22b8ba6-f7c1–43ee-a10a-6af692511143.

  Lustig, Robert H. Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth about Sugar. Fourth Estate, 2013.

  Machamer, Peter, Lindley Darden, and Carl F. Craver. “Thinking about Mechanisms.” Philosophy of Science 67, no. 1 (March 1, 2000): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1086/392759.

  “Male Birth Control Study Killed after Men Report Side Effects.” NPR.org. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/03/500549503/male-birth-control-study-killed-after-men-complain-about-side-effects.

  Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert). An Essay on the Principle of Population, as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society. With Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet and Other Writers. London: J. Johnson, 1798. http://archive.org/details/essayonprincipl00malt.

  Markowitz, Gerald, and David Rosner. Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. 1st paperback printing edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

  Mayo Clinic Staff. “Antidepressants: Get Tips to Cope with Side Effects.” Mayo Clinic. Accessed August 27, 2017. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/antidepressants/art-20049305.

  Mazotti, Massimo. Knowledge as Social Order: Rethinking the Sociology of Barry Barnes. New York: Routledge, 2016.

  McDermott, Annette. “Can Birth Control Cause Depression?” Healthline, 2016. http://www.healthline.com/health/birth-control/birth-control-and-depression.

  McGarity, Thomas O., and Wendy E. Wagner. Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.

  “The Medical Benefit of Daily Flossing Called into Question.” American Dental Association, August 2, 2016. http://www.ada.org/en/science-research/science-in-the-news/the-medical-benefit-of-daily-flossing-called-into-question.

  Merton, Robert. “Science and the Social Order.” Philosophy of Science 5, no. 3 (1938): 321–37.

  Michaels, David. Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health. 1st edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  Mnookin, Seth. The Panic Virus: The True Story behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy. 1st edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

  Moses-Kolko, Eydie L., Julie C. Price, Nilesh Shah, Sarah Berga, Susan M. Sereika, Patrick M. Fisher, Rhaven Coleman, et al. “Age, Sex, and Reproductive Hormone Effects on Brain Serotonin-1A and Serotonin-2A Receptor Binding in a Healthy Population.” Neuropsychopharmacology: Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 36, no. 13 (December 2011): 2729–40. https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2011.163.

  Moslehzadeh, Kaban. “Silness-Löe Index,” September 29, 2010. /CAPP/Methods-and-Indices/Oral-Hygiene-Indices/Silness-Loe-Index/.

  Muller, H. J., F.A.E. Crew, C. D. Darlington, J.B.S. Haldane, C. Harland, L. T. Hogben, J. S. Huxley, et al. “Social Biology and Population Improvement.” Nature 144 (September 16, 1939): 521–22. https://doi.org/10.1038/144521a0.

  Musgrave, Alan. “The Ultimate Argument for Scientific Realism.” In Relativism and Realism in Science, edited by Robert Nola. Berlin: Springer Science and Business Media, 1988.

  Nestle, Marion, Mark Bittman, and Neal Baer. Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda. 1st edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

  Nordhaus, William D. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.

  O’Connell, Ronan. “The Great Dental Floss Scam: You May Never Need to Floss Again.” Techly, August 19, 2016. http://www.techly.com.au/2016/08/19/great-dental-floss-scam-may-never-need-floss/.

  Oláh, K. S. “The Use of Fluoxetine (Prozac) in Premenstrual Syndrome: Is the Incidence of Sexual Dysfunction and Anorgasmia Acceptable?” Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 22, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 81–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443610120101808.

  Oreskes, Naomi. “Objectivity or Heroism? On the Invisibility of Women in Science.” Osiris 11 (1996): 87–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/301928.

  ________. The Rejection of Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  ________. “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.” Science 306 (2004):1686.

  ________. “ ‘Fear’-Mongering Crichton Wrong on Science.” San Francisco Chronicle. Accessed October 13, 2018. https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Fear-mongering-Crichton-wrong-on-science-2698545.php.

  ________. Science on a Mission: American Oceanography from the Cold War to Climate Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, accepted pending revision.

  Oreskes, Naomi, Daniel Carlat, Michael E. Mann, Paul D. Thacker, and Frederick S. vom Saal. “Viewpoint: Why Disclosure Matters.” Environmental Science & Technology 49, no. 13 (July 7, 2015): 7527–28. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02726.

  Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Reprint edition. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011.

  Paul, Diane B. “Eugenic Anxieties, Social Realities, and Political Choices.” Social Research 59, no. 3 (1992): 663–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/40970710.

  ________. Controlling Human Heredity, 1865 to the Present. Humanities Press, 1995.

  Paul, Diane B., and Hamish G. Spencer. “Did Eugenics Rest on an Elementary Mistake?” In Thinking about Evolution: Historical, Philosophical, and Political Perspectives, edited by Rama S. Singh and Costas B. Krimbas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

  Paul, Diane B., John Stenhouse, and Hamish G. Spencer. Eugenics at the Edges of Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Springer, 2017.

  Pearce, Warren, Reiner Grundmann, Mike Hulme, Sujatha Raman, Eleanor Hadley Kershaw, and Judith Tsouvalis. “Beyond Counting Climate Consensus.” Environmental Communication 11, no. 6 (July 23, 2017): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1333965.

  Perry, Mark. “For Earth Day: Michael Crichton Explains Why There Is ‘No Such Thing as Consensus Science.’ ” American Enterprise Institute, April 20, 2015. http://www.aei.org/publication/for-earth-day-michael-crichton-explains-why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-consensus-science/.

  Pope Pius XI. “Casti Connubii: Encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Christian Marriage to the Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Other Local Ordinaries Enjoying Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.” Encyclical, December 31, 1930. https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html.

  Porter, Theodore M. Trust in Numbers. Reprint edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Unive
rsity Press, 1996.

  Proctor, Robert N. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.

  ________. Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. 1st edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

  Proctor, Robert N., and Londa Schiebinger, eds. Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance. 1st edition. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.

  Psillos, Stathis. Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth. New York: Routledge, 2005.

  Resnick, Brian. “If You Don’t Floss Daily, You Don’t Need to Feel Guilty.” Vox, August 2, 2016. https://www.vox.com/2016/8/2/12352226/dental-floss-even-work.

  Rettner, Rachael. “Trump Thinks That Exercising Too Much Uses up the Body’s ‘Finite’ Energy.” Washington Post, May 14, 2017, sec. Health and Science. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-thinks-that-exercising-too-much-uses-up-the-bodys-finite-energy/2017/05/12/bb0b9bda-365d-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html.

  Roberts, Dorothy. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Vintage, 1998.

  ________. The Ethics of Biosocial Science | The New Biosocial and the Future of Ethical Science. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Princeton, NJ, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbCyHY9BH7I.

  Rosen, Raymond, Roger Lane, and Matthew Menza. “Effects of SSRIs on Sexual Function: A Critical Review: Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.” Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 19, no. 1 (February 1999): 67–85. http://journals.lww.com/psychopharmacology/Fulltext/1999/02000/Effects_of_SSRIs_on_Sexual_Function__A_Critical.13.aspx.

  Rubin, Neal. “At a Loss over Dental Floss.” Detroit News, 2016. http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/neal-rubin/2016/08/22/rubin-loss-dental-floss/89131294/.

  Saint Louis, Catherine. “Feeling Guilty about Not Flossing? Maybe There’s No Need.” New York Times, August 2, 2016, sec. Health. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/health/flossing-teeth-cavities.html.

  Sambunjak, Dario, Jason W. Nickerson, Tina Poklepovic, Trevor M. Johnson, Pauline Imai, Peter Tugwell, and Helen V. Worthington. “Flossing for the Management of Periodontal Diseases and Dental Caries in Adults.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 12 (December 7, 2011): CD008829. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008829.pub2.