To be a scientist is, among other things, to be a reviewer, for without the review process science would have no greater claim to truth than any other way of knowing. While peer review does not ensure that science's grasp of reality will always be firm, it does at least serve as a sort of collective feedback mechanism, minimizing spasms of error or prejudice that can lead isolated researchers astray. Realizing this, most scientists accept the task of reviewing proposals and manuscripts for publi

Radical Science Essays. Les Levidow, ed. Humanities Press International, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1986. 240 pp. $29.95 HB, $9.95 PB. Science maintains, quite admirably I believe, an ethic of absolute impartiality and objectivity. To what degree this ideal is approachable is another matter, one. often sidestepped by practicing researchers, but of great concern to those observers of science troubled by the political implications of technological innovation and the public impact of sociological or b

MEMOIR OF A THINKING RADISH An Autobiography. Peter Medawar. Oxford University Press, New York, 1986. 221 pp., illus. $17.95; £12.50. THE SMALL WORLD OF FRED HOYLE An Autobiography. Fred Hoyle. Michael Joseph, London, 1986. 191 pp. £10.95. A LIFE IN SCIENCE Nevill Mott. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia, 1986. 206 pp., illus. $27; £15. "The lives of scientists," writes Sir Peter Medawar, "almost always make dull reading." He is not just being coy. Science, for all its focus on the n