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Science and Truth FINAGLE is not a word that most people associate with science. One reason is that the image of the scientist is of one who always data in an impartial search for truth. In any debate - intelligence, schooling, energy-the phrase science says usually disarms opposition. But scientists have long acknowledged the existence of a finagle factor-a tendency by many scientists to give a helpful change to the data to desired results. The latest of the finagle factor in action comes from Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard biologist, who has the important 19th century work of Dr. Samuel George Morton. Morton was famous in his time for analysing the brain of the skulls as a measure of intelligence. He concluded that whites had the largest brains, that the brains of Indians and blacks were smaller,and , that whites constitute a superior race. Gould went back to Mortons original data and concluded that the were an example of the finagle at work. He found that Mortons discovery was made by leaving out embarrassing data, incorrect procedures, and changing his criteria - again, always in favour of his argument. Morton has been thoroughly discredited by now and scientists do not believe that brain size reflects . But Gould went on to say Mortons story is only an example of a common problem in work. Some of the leading figures in science are to have used the finagle factor. Gould says that Isaac Newton fudged out to support at least three central statements that he could not prove. And so Laudius Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, whose master work, Almagest, summed up the case for a solar system that had the earth as its centre. Recent indicate that Ptolemy either faked some key data or resorted heavily to the finagle factor. | 
