A Measure of Trust
By Robert T. Pennock
Meticulous measurements help make science (and scientists) trustworthy.
This Article From Issue
March-April 2025
Volume 113, Number 2
Page 86
Scientists like to measure things. Doing so is part of what it means to be meticulous in the gathering of evidence. It has often been said that science is measurement. The adage that “To measure is to know” is usually traced back to 19th-century physicist William Thompson. Better known as Lord Kelvin, the units of the absolute temperature scale are named kelvins in his honor. Qualitative impressions of feeling cold, warm, or hot are good enough for many daily decisions, but an objective scale makes knowledge more precise, enabling new sorts of discoveries. We now know that there is a minimum possible temperature—called absolute zero, written as 0 kelvin—and likely a highest one as well. Kelvin’s original statement about measurement and knowledge, given in an 1883 lecture, was similarly nuanced, recognizing degrees of knowledge:
QUICK TAKE
- The trustworthiness of scientific findings increases when they are based on meticulous measurements that are demonstrably accurate, repeatable, and reliable.
- An erosion of trust in science has led researchers to develop varied rigorous instruments to quantify and measure this trust and the factors that determine its level.
- Longitudinal data sets gathered over decades complement cross-sectional data to provide a more nuanced understanding of how public attitudes change.
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