Errors come in many varieties. Scientists, like everyone can be careless or inattentive. Such errors are preventable. But there are other errors that scientists make that are almost unavoidable, as when a conclusion, based on accurate experiments and current knowledge, is later shown to be incorrect in the light of new knowledge. Sociologists of science have been careful to delineate the varieties of error committed by researchers and the relative importance of each.
U.S. congressmen have not been so careful, however. In April, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) convened a House committee to investigate the most recent professional dispute in science to have become public, this time involving researchers at MIT. As Barbara J. Culliton recently noted (Science, April 14, 1988, page 1720), the original allegations concerned error, “but in Washington, the congressmen talked about ‘fraud’ and ‘misconduct’ Distinctions of language fell away; error merged into fraud.”
But while scientists may ...
