S. Worthen | Weblog

Something that's been a minor irritation of mine for quite a long time is the careless use of the word "science". It often reflects carelessness or willful ignorance towards a large array of disciplines. People who aren't interested in science. Explanations which are full of science. An article about science in the newspaper. Usually, those explanations and articles aren't about science: they're about *particular* branches of scientific study. I doesn't help my my mind auto-glosses it as scientia, knowledge. Perhaps there are people out there who speak dismissively of all the "humanities" in a book, but I haven't knowingly met them.

So it's with particular regret that I heard it come out of my mouth tonight at the BSFA. A book with science in it. At the critical moment, my mind failed to provide words like "oceanography" or "geomorphology" or "seismology". I am ashamed.