GIGO

Fallible Science

One of the dominant images of science is that of apparent infallibility. We're all familiar with the reassuring fellow -- I use the word advisedly -- wearing the white coat in detergent, shampoo and flyspray commercials. He's there to let us know that science has the answers to our dirty clothes, our dirty hair and our dirty houses.

There's something very paternalistic in that approach. Perhaps that's why there seems to be a certain degree of gleefulness when science or technology appears to slip up. It's like watching Dad take a pratfall.

Just over three years ago, we warned about the dangers of relying on the rather dubious techniques used in much political polling. Things don't appear to have changed much, judging from the disparity between the confident predictions and the ultimate outcome of the election last year. At least this time, the blame was not heaped on the techniques per se, but on those who may have been over-enthusiastic in their application.

While one may cheerfully agree with the sentiment "bugger the pollsters", you do have to have some sympathy for them. In many ways, pollsters operate under the same difficult conditions as those other benighted forecasters, the weather people. Both deal with changing, unstable elements, and the mistakes of either are always remembered far longer than their triumphs.

Of course, it's always more embarrassing when your mistakes are made on an international stage.

The unfortunate optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope gave NASA more than blurry vision. The space administration got a veritable black eye, with the impression that it was unable to run a successful mission at all. This was compounded by the loss of the Mars Observer last year.

The image of science as infallible is as unrealistic as the impression that it is responsible for all the ills of modern "progress". One can only hope that the much-touted desire to improve general awareness of science and technology will be accompanied by comparable education in the process of science itself.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.