Science, Ethics, and Food Papers and Proceedings of a Colloquium Book

I read this book at a time when I learned about a major fraud case (Diederek Stapel) that shook up the scientific community recently. Behavioral science, more apt to admit false, gave away a scapegoat revealing that research findings that receive acclaim may be revolving around charismatic figures and established prestige. In the scientific publishing sector, only the research that is decorated with novel ideas and a proven hypothesis receive acceptance. Because that's what sells. The papers that are reviewed and published skew towards research that did not fail - which inherently does not reflect how the world works. Things fail, all the time.

So I wasn't surprised that not only behavioral science but also physics show a precedent of massaging raw data to fit research results into Platonic ideals. Going all the way back to Newton, and Millikan. It is daring of Sheldrake to talk about the "intellectual phase-locking" that's been paralyzing true objectivity in modern science, since its dawn. It suggests that empirical science has been establishing "constants" based on faith, not unlike religion. Sheldrake's perspective is vital to level the playground. Cleansing orthodoxy out of scientific practice will create opportunities to tackle tough questions that have been exiled from empirical research. Unexplained phenomena that don’t cease to exist by being ignored may be studied.

A few concepts that Sheldrake mentions are for me to dig deeper into:
- Vitalism as opposed to mechanism.
- Habits as opposed to laws of natural phenomena.
- The collective memory of the universe.

I will revisit this book for:
- its rich bibliography
- suggested experiments, particularly those with pets and experimenter expectation effect.