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Subjectivity of Science - Week One Response

As a Biology major, the courses that I have taken in college have had a heavy basis on proven scientific data and facts that have been previously accepted and re-taught in curriculum.  This is why this class challenges many things that I’ve learned during my scientific career.  From the subjectivity of science to science telling a story, the ideas of this class have helped me become a better scientist because I am questioning what I am being taught and what I know.  Professor Grobstein’s description of ‘the crack’ was something I found interesting because in science a problem is generally thought to have a correct solution that is widely accepted by the public and the scientific community, which is the basis of the success of many of the current pharmaceutical companies.  I know that there are hundreds and thousands of people that contribute to the development of a new solution to a scientific problem, such as Gardasil for HPV, but coming back to ‘the crack’ all of those people come from a different background and have different educations and experiences that define their ideas of science.  These differences in ideas and ideals can have an overall contribution to the discovery of the solution, and therein lays the subjectivity in science.  As unnerving as that is, I feel as though the subjectivity of science helps in furthering the field.  If everyone was taught the same concepts and did not question the material or let their personal history influence how they understand the material, everyone would be thinking the same and no progress would be made!

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