SCIENCE FICTIONS

In 1942, sociologist Robert Merton set out four scientific values, now known as the 'Mertonian Norms'.

First, universalism: scientific knowledge is scientific knowledge, no matter who comes up with it - so long as their methods for finding that knowledge are sound. The race, sex, age, gender, sexuality, income, social background, nationality, popularity, or any other status of a scientist should have no bearing on how their factual claims are assessed. You also can't judge someone's research based on what a pleasant or unpleasant person they are.

Second, disinterestedness: scientists aren't in it for the money, for political or ideological reasons, or to enhance their own ego or reputation (or the reputation of their university, country, or anything else). They're in it to advance our understanding of the universe by discovering things and making things.

The third is communality: scientists should share knowledge with each other. This principle underlies the whole idea of publishing your results in a journal for others to see - we're all in this together; we have to know the details of other scientists' work so that we can assess and build on it.

Lastly, there's organised scepticism: nothing is sacred, and a scientific claim should never be accepted at face value. We should suspend judgement on any given finding until we've properly checked all the data and methodology. The most obvious embodiment of the norm of organised scepticism is the peer review itself.