Description: Cultural critics say that "science is politics by other means, " arguing that the results of scientific inquiry are profoundly shaped by the ideological, agendas of powerful elites. They base their claims on historical case studies purporting to show the systematic intrusion of sexist, racist, capitalist, colonialist, and/or professional, interests into the very content of science. In this hard-hitting collection of essays, contributors offer crisp and detailed critiques of case studies offered by the cultural critics as evidence that scientific results tell, us more about social context than they do about the natural world. Pulling no punches, they identify numerous crude factual blunders (e.g. that Newton never performed any experiments) and egregious errors of omission, such as the attempt to explain the slow development of fluid dynamics solely in terms of gender bias. Comprising new essays by distinguished scholars of history, philosophy, and science, this book raises a lively debate to a new level, of seriousness.

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