Tag: English Civil War

No one is immune from political upheaval, but science has a way of weeding out incorrect hypotheses over time “Science is always political,” asserted a young delegate at an international conference on the history of physics earlier this month. More recently, many American historians of science have suggested that much of the success of 20th century American science, from aeronautics to particle physics, was driven by the politics of the cold war. Some scientists and historians doubt this assertion. In what way is the study of the expanding universe influenced by politics? It seems to me that this internally-driven aspect of scientific research is sometimes overlooked by historians and sociologists of science. For example, it is interesting to note that many of the arguments in Leviathan have been seriously questioned, although these criticisms have not received the same attention as the book itself. That said, few could argue that research into climate science in the United States suffered many setbacks during the presidency of George W Bush, and a similar situation pertains now. But the findings of American climate science are no less valid than they were at other time and the international character of scientific enquiry ensures a certain objectivity and continuity of research. In a recent New York Times article titled “How politics shaped general relativity”, the American historian of science David Kaiser argued convincingly for the role played by national politics in the development of Einstein’s general theory of relativity in the United States. While national and international politics have an impact on every aspect our lives, the innate drive of scientific progress should not be overlooked.