MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIE TY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC
PUBLISHER Elizabeth Marincola
EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Siegfried
EDITORIAL
MANAGING EDITOR Eva Emerson
SENIOR EDITOR/POLICY Janet Raloff
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, NEWS Matt Crenson
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, FEATURES Elizabeth Quill
DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR Erika Engelhaupt
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Alexandra Witze
ASTRONOM Y Ron Cowen
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Bruce Bower
BIOMEDICINE Nathan Seppa
CHEMISTRY/INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES Rachel Ehrenberg
LIFE SCIENCES Susan Milius
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Tina Hesman Saey
NEUROSCIENCE Laura Sanders
PHYSICAL SCIENCES Devin Powell
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WEB SPECIALIST/EDITORIAL SECRETARY Gwendolyn K.N. Gillespie
SCIENCE WRITER INTERN Daniel Strain
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Charles Petit
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Textbook science defers
to supremacy of Science
There’s science, and there’s Science.
The real Science (with the capital
S) is an abstract, idealized, Platonic-
perfection conceptual process of finding
truths about life and nature. Textbook
science (small s) is the practical product
of this endeavor: the contents of text-
books and the current conceptions of
what life and nature are like.
Supposedly, science is a reliable guide to navigating
the world and making sound judgments. And most of the
time it is. When science comes under attack, its critics are
typically enemies of reason, the deniers of fact, logic and
history. But every now and then, science comes under
attack from Science.
At least that might be one way you could interpret some
current controversies in economics, where new research
(Science in action) is challenging the textbook prescriptions
for making many business and investment decisions. It turns
out that textbook science often does no better (and may do
worse) than informed rule-of-thumb guesses, as behavioral
sciences writer Bruce Bower reports in this issue (Page 26).
Among experts, disagreement remains about some of
these findings, and whether they actually invalidate the
economics-textbook science. But suppose they do. It would
be wrong to infer that established science is inherently often
invalid or unworthy of respect. Or that guesswork beats sci-ence-based analyses for assessing optimal courses of action.
It’s just that Science sometimes produces counterintuitive
conclusions that defy the conventional wisdom of science.
All this is simply another sign that the practice of Science
by humans is imperfect. Consequently textbook science is
never completely correct. A large part of reporting news
from the world of research is identifying instances where
Science suggests the need for textbook revisions.
When controversy erupts, though, science and Science can
seem to be at odds; the desire to verify old verities often competes with the quest to uncover new understanding. In such
situations, textbook conclusions properly rooted in sound
Science should not be dismissed lightly, but neither should
science impede the assimilation of new evidence. Rewriting
the textbooks to accommodate such evidence reflects the
prime reason for science’s strength: When Science speaks,
science listens.
—Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief
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