SOILS, NATURAL-SCIENCE, AND MODELS

We examine the last half-century of natural science, with special reference to its ethos and to changing public attitudes to the autonomy and accountability of the scientific community. The content of soil science places it uneasily between natural science on the one hand and the world of professional practice on the other. Very different attitudes to personal responsibility at the two ends of the continuum make for potential conflict. In recent decades the computer/modeling symbiosis has burst upon the scene. Current modeling practice fits more readily into the professional segment of the continuum than into the natural science segment. A disturbing aspect is that computer modeling has largely supplanted laboratory experimentation and field observation as the research activity of students. The future of soil science is contingent on how everyone's perceptions of natural science and of model validation evolve; it is the perceptions of soil scientists themselves which are most important.