The popular image of the scientist as “dispassionate,” and therefore somehow less than human, is undoubtedly bolstered by the convention according to which modern scientists remove discussion of their personal hopes and desires as much as possible from the publication of their research results. There is at least one good reason for the appearance of impersonality in the scientific literature: It minimizes obstacles against building consensus and thus hastens the conversion of private science into public science.

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Educational assessment
1.
J. Stachel, ed., The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 1, Princeton U.P., Princeton, N.J. (1987).
2.
A. Reiser, Albert Einstein, Albert & Charles Boni, New York (1930).
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© 1994 American Institute of Physics.
1994
American Institute of Physics
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