Secrecy and Science

Brian Balmer, Reader in Science Policy Studies, University College London, UK

• List of Abbreviations; Preface and Acknowledgements; Chapter 1 Secret Science; Chapter 2 Secrecy at Work: Scientists’ Defence of Biological Warfare Research; Chapter 3 Making Secrets: Accidents, Experiments and the Production of Knowledge; Chapter 4 Keeping, Disclosing and Breaching Secrets: Classification and Security; Chapter 5 Secrecy, Doubt and Uncertainty: Power/Ignorance?; Chapter 6 Secrecy, Transparency and Public Relations: Opening Up Porton Down in the ‘Year of the Barricades’; Chapter 7 Secret Spaces of Science: A Secret Formula, a Rogue Patent and Public Knowledge about Nerve Gas; Chapter 8 Opaque Science;

'’Secret science’ is much more than normal science with access restrictions applied; a world neatly divided into an inside and an outside. Brian Balmer uses various metaphors, including concentric spheres, labyrinths and archipelagos, to illuminate and explain a world with few absolutes... As the author explains in the preface, this book operates on two levels: it is a history of biological and chemical weapons research in the UK during the Cold War, and can be read as such. But it will also appeal to a smaller group, with an interest in science and technology studies, by illuminating the social processes by which science and secrecy are co-produced. I believe that the book’s insights and conclusions are much more broadly applicable even than this and will certainly interest an Australian readership. Although it sometimes uses technical language, with which a social scientist might feel more comfortable, this book is very accessible. It provides an intriguing perspective on the production of scientific knowledge, and the complications introduced by secrecy. The phrase ’social science’ now seems tautological to me: since scientific knowledge is socially-produced, how could the two ever be separated?' Australian Defence Force Journal