Part of “use and misuse” is the question of whether citizens trust what scientists tell them. Some people embrace the message and act accordingly. Some people distrust the message and act accordingly. For any given message we get from scientists, which response should we adopt? Part of our answer will depend on what we know about how scientists came to believe as they do. It’s one thing to know what scientists tell us. It is quite something else to understand why they reached their conclusions.
This section of my blog is an exercise in spreading knowledge about how scientists come to believe what they tell us. I want to explore whether scientists can explain their methods and deliberations well enough for us to make informed judgements about the worth of their messages.
My hope is to post quite a few relevant interviews, but so far I have only been able to recruit one. If I manage to get more, I’ll add them here. (If you have candidates for scientists who would be interested in participating in this series, please send me their contact information.)
Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance — Part 1. Dr. Tamra Hendrickson, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance — Part 2. Dr. Tamra Hendrickson, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University
Evaluation Uncertainty 
This one of the most important things you could have done. One of the (traditionally) nastiest and most important questions you can ask an anthropologist is “how do you know that”?