On Science, Society and the Contemporary Condition

With the massive investment in science since WWII, why are so many scientists questioning science's resilience?

Science is not as objective as often thought. It is conducted in the context of a contemporary culture. The ideals and imagination that propelled so much scientific discovery of the past have been undermined in recent decades. Big-budget projects and the information overload have stultified disciplines, undermining creativity and leading to a hegemony of research silos and a failure to evolve the conceptual frameworks underlying research.

Not only do different instincts govern creativity, but the balance between these instincts is critical to progress. Contemporary culture is a consequence of overwhelming information, promoting analytical thinking at the expense of intuition and imagination. It is difficult to see the wood for the trees. Facing up to and solving paradoxes is a path towards realizing frameworks of ever greater legitimacy and reflecting visions of ever broader scope. The author develops these views in the context of immunology. Seeing the wood is essential to solving major problems of world health, such as AIDS, cancer, and tuberculosis.

Every reading elicits new and fascinating details, engendering a deeper understanding of the author's work and message. Not only is the argument important, but the way it is made exemplifies the elastic and fecund thinking required to challenge current scientific and contemporary culture. This book is as edifying as it is profoundly comforting.

Peter Bretscher comes from a scientific family. He met scientists as a kid who, he later realized, were giants of their fields. He became interested, as a teen, in philosophy and scientific theories, and became committed to explore whether he himself might have the gifts to contribute to science. He studied physics at Cambridge University. He gained his PhD at the Cambridge Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1968. Here, he became immersed, "on the side", in immunology, and discussed his ideas with Francis Crick. He became an immunologist, making both theoretical and experimental contributions over more than 50 years. He had a heart attack in 2006. He resolved, whilst in the intensive care unit, to write this book. He felt the heritage of the scientific spirit had been undermined in recent decades.

He has recently written two books on his immunological work, Rediscovering the Immune System as an Integrated Organ and The Foundations of Immunology and Their Pertinence to Medicine (both FriesenPress, 2016).

He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with his spouse, Calliopi Havele. (554 vs 504)