The social production of scientific knowledge (Book Review).

The final three essays deal with science and politics. The best of these, by far, are the two case studies by Nowotny and Nelkin. Nowotny argues that traditional methods of scientific risk-assessment are not adaptable to modern technological hazards like those involved in nuclear technology. Nelkin's excellent paper is a study of fundamentalist, sects in the United States and the strategies that they have adopted to refute scientific claims that life arose and developed by naturistic processes and not in the manner described in Genesis. An interesting aspect of Nelkin's work is that she shows that in attacking science the fundamentalists have themselves adopted a scientific manner of style and argumentation. It is, perhaps, a testament to the power of science in our modern socety that even its enemies are forced to adopt the clothing of that which they openly despise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]