Scientists are no more immune than ordinary mortals to the temptation of soothsaying, especially when they step outside their area of specialization. John Strutt, better known as Lord Rayleigh, averred in 1896 that he had "not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning." Ernest Rutherford was one of many scientists who doubted that the atom would ever yield significant power. John Cornforth told Dorothy Hodgkin, "If that's the formula of penicillin, I'll give up chemistry and grow mushrooms." Edward Purcell said in 1952, "All this stuff about traveling around the universe in space suits . . . belongs back where it came from, on the cereal box." With many controversies, it is possible to count Nobel laureates on both sides: fluoridation of water, atomic energy, Intelligent Design, the big bang, welfare economics, the existence of God. But more significant than their differences are their areas of agreement: in the importance of science and in the freedom to pursue it.
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