Science as oath and testimony: Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008).

Josh Lederberg was already worried a generation ago: “One of the major trends of scientific writings for the past century is the systematic falsification of the actual techniques and method of discovery (1).” Lederberg wasn’t concerned that published papers fail to mention the false starts, wrong turns, or dead ends on the road to discovery. He accepted the conventional forms of scientific publication, which he called “recipes for replication of the results.” He even praised the traditional format of the standard research report for its “pedagogical elegance” that prevented dragging in “all the dirty linen that led to the very fine fabrics that are eventually produced.” What troubled Lederberg most, however, was that when we falsify the process of discovery we lead the gate-keepers of science astray. All of us are guilty, he argued, of persuading funding agencies to expect grant proposals neatly packaged as “recipes for replication” with no wiggle room for risk and innovation. He warned that government or private entities that required tidy recipes for proposed experiments would be “selecting against creativity” in research (1). Joshua Lederberg used the evolutionary term “selection” accurately and with intent. The discussion took place at a 1978 Stanford symposium honoring the centenary of Claude Bernard’s death; it was co-sponsored by the French consul in San Francisco and took place at the Moët estate in the wine country. As expected, talk flowed as freely as vintage and soon the discussion turned to whether Bernard had learned anything from Darwin. A colleague suggested that a true scientific discovery is like a mutation, a quantum shift with selective advantage. To extend the analogy, Lederberg was asked whether system (pure theory) or experiment (the lab observation) was the best mutagen. His answer: Both. He was convinced that the “tension between system and experiment” directs the sort of sea change in science that Thomas Kuhn was to call a paradigm shift (3). Joshua Lederberg’s own career illustrates the point. Discussing his own paradigm shift in a joint interview with Thomas Kuhn, he attributed it to a mixture of system and experiment: Joshua Lederberg, Wisconsin 1958 (courtesy National Library of Medicine). Joshua Lederberg, New York 2003 (courtesy Rockefeller University).