Dorothy Nelkin

Dorothy Wolfers Nelkin (July 30, 1933 – May 28, 2003) was an American sociologist of science most noted for her work researching and chronicling interplay between science, technology and the general public.

Her work often highlighted the ramifications of unchecked scientific advances and potential threats to privacy and civil liberties.

She was the author or co-author of 26 books, including Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, and Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age.

Nelkin served on governmental and other advisory boards such as the National Center for Science Education, the United States Human Genome Project, and the Society for Social Studies of Science.

Nelkin earned a B.A. from the Department of Philosophy at Cornell University in 1954.

After earning her degree, Nelkin devoted nearly a decade to home life and motherhood before returning to Cornell in 1963.

Nelkin became interested in the issues of nuclear power when, in 1967, New York State Electric & Gas (NYSE&G) proposed to build a nuclear power plant on Cayuga Lake.

By the 1970s, Nelkin was a research associate at Cornell.

She wrote Nuclear Power and its Critics: The Cayuga Lake Controversy (1971) as a case study sponsored by the Cornell University's Program on Science, Technology and Society.

The book documented the differing stakeholder perspectives, including scientists from Cornell University, the Citizen's Committee to Save Cayuga Lake, representatives from the Atomic Energy Commission, New York State Department of Health, and NYSE&G.

Critics noted the book was a "painstaking history" that may not be "useful or interesting" to the general reader, but valuable in that it posed questions about the role of scientists in public debate, as well as how the scientific dimension was portrayed in the media.

This project marked the beginning of Nelkin's long-term interest in public controversies, including sound pollution in relation to Logan Airport, creationism, atomic power, and the application and management of technology.

Nelkin's book, Science Textbook Controversies and the Politics of Equal Time (MIT, 1977), documented the "religious and cultural war" of the early 1970s in which religious groups in the United States challenged the teaching of evolution in school textbooks and argued in favor of "creation-science".

As one critic wrote, Nelkin was "sympathetic, but alarmed" at what she considered a "growth of intolerance, a new rigidity in values".

Nelkin also wrote about creation science and, in 1981, testified for the plaintiffs in McLean v. Arkansas.

Nelkin often addressed the legal community, political leaders, and the general public on issues concerning science studies, bioethics, and the public assessment of science and technology.

In 1982, Nelkin followed up with The Creation Controversy: Science or Scripture in the Schools. In it, she documented various state and local conflicts over science textbooks and the teaching of biological evolution.

These issues included local control, public participation in the assessment of science and technology, and the increasingly disputed role of expertise in public policy". Nelkin asserted that fundamentalists focus on education because it is one area where parents can "exert control over their lives and families". According to Nelkin, there is a link between creationism and areas of high technology", with some creationists representing themselves as scientists.

This rising interest in creation science, according to Nelkin, was an outcropping of popular anxieties about science and technology.

One critic called the book "balanced" and "richly factual", but expressed concerns that Nelkin's approach did not take into account differences among religious beliefs saying, "Such a sociological approach accordingly misses the subtleties of the religious issues that must be considered to explain creation-science."

In Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, Nelkin explored the cultural pressures which shape the reporting of science in the popular press.

It reflects her concern about "science by press conference".

She posited that scientists and journalists have differing agendas that cause a "distortion of scientific progress".

The culture of journalism and pressures to respond to events causes the superficiality or oversimplification of science reporting in the press, raising concerns when scientific breakthroughs and calamities (e.g., AIDS, Three Mile Island, the Challenger Disaster) are overstated.

The scientific community, on the other hand, deals with the "continuous process of research".

She held this position for several years before being awarded a full professorship, despite having no other formal credentials besides the B.A. In 1987, Nelkin left Cornell to join New York University (NYU) as a visiting professor.

By 1990, she was a university professor at NYU and a member of the Law School faculty.

Nelkin began her career by researching the experiences of African-American migrant farm workers in New York State.

Her work then turned to issues of nuclear power and the role scientists play in public decision making.

This experience sparked a long-term interest in public controversies.

Nelkin testified in an Arkansas creationism trial, which she stated was "one of a series of exercises to get religion back into schools."

Nelkin wrote about creation science in Science Textbook Controversies and the Politics of Equal Time and, later The Creation Controversy: Science or Scripture in the Schools, warning that limited public understanding of science made them vulnerable to groups that "try to use science as a means to establish their own legitimacy".

As her career progressed, Nelkin focused on the "uneasy relationship" between science, technology, and society.

She wrote about media influences on science and technology in Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology.

This work led to an interest in biomedicine, the aesthetic of DNA, and civil liberties.

Her book The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon, co-written with Susan Lindee, was used as a teaching text.

She followed up with two other books, Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age with Lori Andrews, and The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age with Suzanne Anker.

Nelkin served as an advisor to the United States government's Human Genome Project, among other policy boards and assessment panels internationally.

She was a founding member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Public Understanding of Science.

She also served on the Advisory Council for the National Center for Science Education, as well as on editorial boards for journals in sociology, science studies, law, history and public health.