Science Has an Imagination Problem

🍏your Sunday read 2nd March, 2025

A well-researched original piece to get you thinking.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.
Know someone who will enjoy The Scholarly Letter? Forward it to them.

Image: Science Instructing Industry: Drapery Study Credits: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Thomas Kensett, 1874; Francis Lathrop Fund, 1950

Hi Scholar,

This week’s letter explores a fundamental paradox in scientific research—one that claims to be purely objective, yet inevitably relies on subjective human faculties like imagination, creativity, and judgment. While scholars may accept this paradox without question, what happens when the general public becomes aware of it? Does revealing the human side of science strengthen trust—or does it undermine the authority of scientific knowledge altogether?

So grab a beverage and your reading glasses, let’s get thinking.

Science Has An Imagination Problem

-Written by The Critic

Our story begins with a decade-long controversy triggered by allegations of scientific fraud, known as the Baltimore Case. Thereza Imanishi-Kari was accused of fabricating primary data in a paper co-authored with Nobel Laureate David Baltimore (and four others), published in Cell, an influential biology journal. Imanishi-Kari was found not to have fabricated the data, but she was guilty of sloppy science.  

This Letter is for Paid Subscribers