Rippon tells me that in her field it’s impossible not to see the scientific data politicized, especially when it enters the public realm. “Science doesn’t operate in a political vacuum,” she explains. “I think there are some sciences which can be more objective than others. But we are dealing with people, we’re not the Large Hadron Collider.” Unlike particle physics, neuroscience is about humans, and it has profound repercussions for how people see themselves.
