In an ideal world, we could
just wait for science to provide us with ultimate truths to guide our actions.
But we are not living in that utopia and, in this real world, science is as full
of change and uncertainty as any other field of human endeavor.
Thirty years ago popular
scientific opinions held that we were headed toward a new Ice Age if pollution
was not curtailed. Currently, broadly held opinions dictate that use of fossil
fuels is causing global warming.
But that view is far from
unanimous. Over 17,000 scientists have signed on to the Oregon Institute of
Science and Medicine's Global Warming petition which states that the Kyoto
protocol and any similar agreements should be rejected since "There is no
convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or
other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause
catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's
climate."
This uncertainty even applies
to fundamental basics of physics.
"What you have been taught in
school is almost certainly wrong," Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
physicist George Chapline told Scientific American magazine recently regarding
the behavior of black holes.
Science doesn't exist just in
the laboratory and it affects far more than professors' tenure. Whether we are
talking about medicine, physics, chemistry or any other scientific endeavor, it
impacts everyone's life on a daily basis.
Litigation often lies at the
crossroads between the current state of scientific knowledge and human
experience. Life can't be put in suspended animation waiting for scientists to
definitively answer all the questions of existence. Whether sitting in the jury
box, selecting a mate, or deciding the best way to lose ten pounds, we
constantly evaluate conflicting data and make our own choice.
It's a system fraught with
mistakes. That's why a jury has twelve members and there are several levels of
appeal. That's why the law permits divorce. That's why the Innocence Project
applies new science to correct past errors.
No, life is not certain. But
it must be lived.
Sheila Atkinson-Baker
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