It is true that, like all of us, scientists cannot isolate themselves from their cultural contexts. These contexts can surely lead to biases and blind spots. Sometimes the conclusions scientists draw in the grips of their own biases have been socially unacceptable, morally bankrupt, or just wrong, and yet were widely accepted nonetheless.34 So it is true that we need to be aware of and sophisticated about how social and political factors may influence science—and it is for this reason that the sorts of cultural critiques of science emerging from science studies can and have been deeply
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