At National Review Online, conservative curmudgeon John Derbyshire has weighed in on the Climategate scandal by encouraging conservatives not to jump on the anti-science bandwagon. I share his worry and find his advice is good so far as it goes; but I think Derbyshire’s defense of science might actually encourage the skepticism he wants to prevent. Most of the trouble comes from his invocation of the word “science,†and his claim that science has a magisterium.His article is called “Trust Science.†I’m not sure what that means. What is “science,†and how do we “trust†it? Imagine if someone said:...