Susan Greenfield on Scientific Doubt

Susan Greenfield on scientific doubt.

"Scientists inhabit a tilting and inconclusive world; doubt is as natural to us as breathing, even at the moment of seeming break-through".

Doubt in science is tonight's subject in a series of Essays on The Case for Doubt, in which five contributors argue that doubt is a valuable and meaningful strength, and not a crippling and negative weakness.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, a scientist who specialises in the physiology of the brain, argues that doubt among scientists should be 'as natural as breathing', even when breakthroughs occur, and that doubt in science should be integral not so much to what scientists do, as to how they think.

First broadcast in April 2012.