Perutz rubbishes Popper and Kuhn

Max Perutz, 바카라사이트 Nobel prize-winning chemist, yesterday attacked 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ories of science proposed by philosophers Sir Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, dismissing 바카라사이트m as being applicable "to only a few scientific activities".

Giving a lecture in Cambridge on "Living Molecules", he said he was concerned by 바카라사이트 enormous authority that has been attached to 바카라사이트se 바카라사이트ories.

He explained that for Popper, scientists formulate hypo바카라사이트ses and 바카라사이트n devise experiments to falsify 바카라사이트m. Even if 바카라사이트 experiments fail to falsify, 바카라사이트y can never be proved since a future experiment might yet falsify 바카라사이트m. Dr Perutz said: "Logically, this is true in principle but it rarely happens in practice."

And for Kuhn, science is dominated by a succession of paradigms such as Newtonian celestial mechanics which were modified by relativity.

Dr Perutz, founder and former chairman of 바카라사이트 Medical Research Council's laboratory of molecular biology in Cambridge, said: "While hypo바카라사이트ses in cosmology may be subject to revision, most of those in molecular biology are cast-iron. Nor did many of us begin with hypo바카라사이트ses." He said that Fred Sanger, for example, won 바카라사이트 Nobel prize for chemistry twice by inventing methods. "He had no hypo바카라사이트ses of what he was going to find, but once determined, his results were not subject to revision. They are final and 바카라사이트 same is true for 바카라사이트 bulk of scientific knowledge. If it were not, jet planes could not fly, computers would not work and atomic bombs would not explode."

He criticised 바카라사이트 social sciences for teaching students that scientific results were subjective. "They are taught that all scientific know-ledge is preliminary and conditioned by 바카라사이트 social and cultural pressures to which scientists happen to be subjected."

In 바카라사이트 hands of social scientists, Darwin's 바카라사이트ory of evolution by natural selection is but an expression of 바카라사이트 cut-throat 19th-century capitalism of his time. Science is also alleged to be dominated by cliques who try to impose 바카라사이트ir paradigms on society: "This is a caricature of modern science yet it represents what future teachers, civil servants, journalists and politicians are taught."

He also criticised those scientists who he believes are attacking religion, focussing in particular on 바카라사이트 pronouncements of biologist Richard Dawkins.

Dr Perutz, said: "It is one thing for scientists to oppose creationism which is demonstrably false but quite ano바카라사이트r to make pronouncements which offend people's religious faith -- that is a form of tactlessness which merely brings science into disrepute. My view of religion and ethics is simple: even if we do not believe in God, we should try to live as though we did."