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At the other end of the spectrum of scientific "certainty" is this story, from y'day's Times, about the closing of Princeton 's ESP Lab, which has been conducting studies of extrasensory perceptionand telekinesis since 1979.

Says the author of Voodoo Science; The Road From Foolish to Fraud: "Science has a substantial amount of credibility, but this is the kind of thing that squanders it."

Says the author of Scientific Elite: Noble Laureates in the Unites States: "the system is going to be skeptical of ideas that are inconsistent with what is already known."

Says Benedict Carey (who wrote the article): "The culture of science, at its purest, is one of freedom in which any idea can be tested regardless of how far-fetched it might seem. ..[The lab's] longevity illustrates the strength and limititations sof scientific peer review, the process by which researchers appraise one another's work....

Says the lab's manager: "We submitted our data for review to very good journals..but no one would review it. We have been very open with our data. But how do you peer review when you don't have peers?""

Says the lab's founder, "If people don't believe us after all the results we've produced, then they never will....It's time for...someone to figure out what the implications of our results are for human culture, for future study, and--if the findings are correct--what they say about our basic scientific attitude."

What canst thou say?