The story of snowflakes shows as well as any that the iron rule’s ideal of objectivity for arguments appearing in official scientific communications is only ever partially achieved. But it is not merely a pretense, not simply propaganda. The presentation of scientific evidence and argument may fall short of perfect objectivity while still largely performing its underlying functions: to archive for future generations the outcomes of tests and their explanatory relations to theory and to channel scientists’ energy and attention away from opinion, persuasion, and invective—directing it instead
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does this argument really go through if everybody is fibbing?
