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Question
How does society shape science?
Answer
Mainly through funding — funders choose which projects to back, so money decides which questions get answered.
Question
Funding can't change what?
Answer
The facts themselves — a discovery is real once made. But funders decide WHICH truths get found first.
Question
What is 'big science'?
Answer
Research so large and costly it needs whole nations or global teams to fund it.
Question
Two examples of big science?
Answer
The Human Genome Project (mapping human DNA) and the Large Hadron Collider (the giant particle machine near Geneva).
Question
How does military money shape science?
Answer
It pulls whole fields toward the questions armies care about — weapons, defence — and away from others.
Question
Whose questions get asked?
Answer
Problems with a powerful, paying backer get researched; those without (e.g. poorer-country illnesses) get far less.
Question
How does 6.3.2 connect to Longino (6.3.1)?
Answer
Contextual values aren't just in one scientist's head — they're built into the whole funding system's choices.
Question
Why are gaps in our knowledge 'choices'?
Answer
Society chooses which questions to fund, so what stays unknown reflects who had funding power, not what matters most.
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Topic 6.3 hub
Science and society
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