“Science is political”. How could it not be? It’s done by humans, whose political biases will influence not just the topics they choose to study but also how they study them. But does that mean it’s fine for scientists to blatantly bring their politics into their work? Does that mean it’s okay for scientific journals to endorse political candidates?

In this slightly unusual episode of The Studies Show (which doesn’t include very many actual studies), Tom and Stuart discuss the never-ending debate over where politics begins and ends in science, debate whether it’s possible for science to be politics-free, and cover the recent story of the scientific journal editor fired for expressing a (pretty mild, all things considered) political opinion on Twitter.

The Studies Show is brought to you by the i, the non-partisan UK daily newspaper for readers with open minds. For the best insights into British politics, as well as extensive interviews, lifestyle insights, and all the rest, consider subscribing to the paper. You can get a money-off deal on your digital subscription by following this special podcast link.

The Studies Show is also sponsored by Works in Progress, the online magazine about science, technology, and human progress. Their newest November 2023 issue is packed with data-driven, deeply-researched articles on the history and future of the science and tech that shapes our world. It’s all freely-available right here at this link.

Show notes

* Eisen’s joke about a worm which caused a racism/sexism row

* His fateful tweet about Hamas that eventually got him fired as editor of eLife

* Coverage of his firing in Nature News; in Science

* Nature endorses Biden in 2020

* Tom’s article in Unherd about politicising science

* Tom’s article in Unherd about the importance of “decoupling”

* Stuart’s Substack article about how science is political - but that’s a bad thing

* Astral Codex Ten article about the arrogance of presuming it’s not possible to be any more rational than you are right now

* Study of how Nature’s political endorsements affected people’s trust in the journal

* Stuart’s article in the i on this study; summary in Politico

* Nature’s editorial response, arguing that they’ll do endorsements anyway

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe

Episode 19: Science and politics

Science Fictions