It’s that hollowing-out, Riskin suggests, that gives the sciences their sinister shadow. Genetics was preceded by eugenics; Darwin is still dogged (correctly or otherwise) by social Darwinism. In either case, and so many others, it’s not that “science” was infiltrated by a political (or poetical) poison. Rather, the very idea that science could be separate from such concerns allowed interested parties to bend it to their will. Science without poetry lacks imagination, but notably, it also lacks a moral compass.