Taking Sides Is Not the Same as Defending Science
Public trust in science weakens not only through external attack but through institutional restraint at moments that call for clarity. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was founded to defend standards of evidence, limits of interpretation, and the public meaning of scientific work, yet recent choices suggest a growing preference for procedural language over visible stewardship. Governance, inclusion, and neutrality matter, but they cannot substitute for articulating what science can claim and what it cannot. Earlier posts here argued that metrics fail when they replace judgment rather than inform it, and the same pattern appears at the institutional level. Organizations founded to advance science exist not to take sides, but to protect the conditions under which basic research can persist across generations.
Further Reading
Albert Einstein, portrait, 1921. Public domain.