Trial of Errors
Peter W. Huber, in Daeda-lus (Fall 1990), 136 Irving Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
Scientists have no patience for colleagues who cook numbers and gloss over errors. So it is ironic, says Huber, a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, that half-baked scien- tific theories and unproven hypotheses have found a home in, of all places, the American courtroom. During the last dec- ade, he writes, "courts have become steadily more willing to decide factual is- sues that mainstream scientists still c...