Speaking precision to power: the modern political role of social science.

THE MODERN COMPACT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THE STATE ALLOWS FOR the flow of public money to research and an expectation that politicians will generally not meddle with the scientific work--on condition that the science, reciprocally, should stay clear of politics. That seems at first a harmless constraint, for what could be political about the formation and breakdown of atmospheric ozone, the dynamics of ocean currents, or the neurological development of a fetus? Yet in none of these areas can scientific research now stand apart from charged public issues. Indeed, while political…