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The pace of scientific activity does not need reducing; it is already too slow, says Jennifer Schnellmann
Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science
By Isabelle Stengers
Polity, 220pp, £50.00 and £15.99
ISBN 9781509521807 and 1814
Published 15 December 2017
Another Science is Possible
makes a passionate plea for decelerating the pace of scientific activity.
Isabelle Stengers' demand ostensibly arises from the dismissal of a colleague who took a stand as a citizen-scientist against genetically modified foods (potatoes!). Her compassion for a fellow academic is laudable, but no current data regarding GM foods - which are more than 30 years old - suggest that they pose risks to human health. The outcome may have been unfortunate for Stengers' associate (especially because her contrarian and minority opinion would be unlikely to gain any attention from experts in the field)...