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Science and Truth
科学与真理
Edward Edelson
爱德华·埃德尔森
"Finagle" is not a word that most people associate with science. One reason why science is sorespected these days is that the image of the scientist is of one who collects data in an impartial search for truth. In any debate - over intelligence, schooling, bias, energy - the phrase "science says" usually crushes the opposition.
大多数人不会将“欺诈”一词与科学联系在一起。如今科学备受尊重，原因之一在于，人们心目中科学家的形象是一个认真收集数据资料、不带偏见地寻求真理的人。在就智力、学校教育、偏见、能源等等问题展开的任何一场争论中，一句“科学认为”往往便能驳倒对方。
But scientists have long acknowledged the existence of a "finagle factor" - a tendency by manyscientists to give a helpful touch to the data to produce desired results. The latest example of the finagle factor comes from Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard biologist, who has examined the important 19th century work of Dr. Samuel George Morton.
但科学家们早就承认“欺诈因素”的存在——许多科学家往往对数据进行于己有利的处理，以获得想要的结果。有关欺诈因素的最新例子来自哈佛生物学家斯蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德，他对19世纪塞缪尔·乔治·莫顿博士的重要著作进行了研究。
Morton was famous in his time not only for gathering a huge collection of skulls but also for analyzing the brain size as a measure of intelligence. He concluded that whites had the largest brains, that the brains of Indians and Blacks were smaller, and therefore, that whites make up a superior race.
莫顿生前不仅以收集大批头盖骨闻名，同时也以对大脑的大小进行分析，以此作为衡量智力的标准而著称。他得出结论，白人的大脑最大，印第安人和黑人的大脑较小，因此白人人种优越。
