Virtual Truth: digital manipulation in the Earth sciences

摘要

Like most scientists, I have always believed that science, in its own strange way amidst the vagaries and foibles of the peo- ple involved in its endeavour, has tended towards some sort of truth-whether or not this truth is absolute(and this note exam- ines the question no further), science has improved our knowl- edge of the niverse. I was reminded recently how precarious this edifice can be; when browsing a compilation of essays by Peter Medawar(Nobel prize in immunology, 1960), I chanced Upon this review of the book Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science by William Broad and Nicholas Wade.