The Maintenance Of Ambiguity In Martian Exobiology
Keith Cowing
The Maintenance Of Ambiguity In Martian Exobiology
How do scientists maintain their research programs in the face of not finding anything? Continual failure to produce results can result in declining support, scientific controversy and credibility challenges.
We elaborate on a crucial mechanism for sustaining the credibility of research programs through periods of non-detection: the maintenance of ambiguity. By this, we refer to scientific strategies that resist closure or an experiment’s...