Nobody at the top

Abstract

EMBO Reports (2018) 19: e46329[OpenUrl][1][FREE Full Text][2] Science is a global endeavour, a unifying mission to obtain an objective understanding of the natural world. Most of its practitioners will never meet each other or interact directly or even indirectly in any way, yet they all retain and share a sense of kinship in this open‐ended enterprise. They dwell in different societies or geopolitical entities, represent all nations, but remain bound together by a common search for objective truth (and occasionally, as here, by a propensity to indulge in pompous sermons on how wonderful and Enlightened they are). In this sense, science—or more accurately the scientific method—bears some of the hallmarks of an organised religion. It encourages adherence to particular creeds, displays a distrust of unorthodoxy (particularly when it comes to allocation of research funds) and requires its acolytes to undergo gruelling trials to test their knowledge and worthiness for inclusion. But there is one way in which science differs fundamentally … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DEMBO%2BReports%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.15252%252Fembr.201846329%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F29769240%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink?linkType=FULL&journalCode=embor&resid=19/6/e46329&atom=%2Fembor%2F19%2F6%2Fe46329.atom