Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in creative work on scientifc ignorance and
uncertainty, which can be traced in part to a realization that ignorance and uncertainty cannot
always be reduced or banished from science, and that they are social and cultural products
rather than merely "part of the phenomenon. " The fact that ignorance is negotiable and yet
fundamental to scientific work poses several important dilemmas and prospects. We may be
participating in a shift from the traditional research strategies of reducing or banishing
ignorance toward a deeper understanding of and greater capacity to cope with ignorance.
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