Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World

摘要

J. D. Bernal, the brilliant crystallographer and leading figure in the Marxist analysis of science, wrote: "The real derogation of science is the frustration and perversion that arise in a society in which science is valued for what it can add to private profit and the means of destruction" (Science in History, 1971,33). Fraud in science offers an extreme case of this "frustration and perversion," a "pathological case" that can reveal the pressures inherent in the routine functioning of institutions under "normal" conditions in our society. Deviance and anomalous behaviors are shaped by their social context; they therefore provide unique opportunities for understanding the tensions and contradictions inherent in these contexts.