Uncertain Science…Uncertain World by Henry Pollack, Cambridge University Press, £18.95, ISBN 0521781884 Reviewed by Mike Holderness
SCIENCE and the law understand the word “true” quite differently. A scientist might say “we tried really hard to disprove this, and failed”: uncertainty is built in. English juries are instructed to do nothing unless “you are certain so that you are sure”. The truth is whatever they decide. And things such as global climate change force scientists to address policy makers – who are at heart lawyers – through a flock of journalists.
Henry Pollack is a professor of geophysics at the University of…
