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This article is from the Food Science FAQ, bypking123@sympatico.ca (Paul E. J. King) with numerous contributions by others.

3. Why do scientific experts often disagree?

Personal opinions vary in every walk of life, but scientists
disagree far less than the media suggest. However, at the 'cutting
edge' of scientific research, there can be genuine disagreements on
the validity or interpretation of available information and on how
new research findings may affect previous interpretations. Scientists
are accustomed to debating these matters, and it is in the course of
thrashing out these differences and highlighting gaps of knowledge
where further research is needed, that scientific knowledge advances.
It requires objective judgement, without, on the one hand, undue
zealotry or, on the other hand, defence at all costs of entrenched
positions of past orthodoxy.

 

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• prev: 2. Wouldn't our food be even better without scientists and technologists interfering with it?
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• next: 4. Doesn't hindsight show that the experts always "got it wrong"?

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