ABSTRACT
The author introduces various members of the sociology faculty and shown the premises of the Social Science Research Center where most of the department's research works was located. Alan Lightman is a well-known author of popular science and a lecturer in physics at MIT. With Roberta Brawer, he has recently published a book, Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists. Ferris is a professor of journalism at Berkeley; his works of popular science deal with astronomy, physics, and cosmology. What image of the social sciences would a Scientific American reader derive from Ferris's insulting comment? It is true that many works of social science proceed by asking every respondent "the same standardized questions." The implication of the comment, as denigrating to the social science enterprise as it is preposterous, is that most social scientists would look on Origins as an example of good or at least acceptable research procedure.
