Naomi Oreskes

Historian of science

Why trust science? The pandemic might have laid all doubts to rest for some, but as Harvard historian of science Oreskes argues in her new book, which takes that question as its title, scientists sincerely believed in now discredited theories like phrenology and Limited Energy Theory (the latter of which claimed that women didn’t have the physical ability to both bear children and be educated). As such, how can we be sure that current scientific approaches won’t be considered as absurd in 100 years’ time? Oreskes’s answer is to further diversify the scientific community—and to maintain a sceptical approach to all claims of absolute scientific truth.