This is a great reflection from one of my favorite science bloggers.  Look, here’s the deal: science matters, and it’s necessary, and it’s information we can’t ignore.  But that’s where it stops: as information.  The globe is warming, for example.  This is human’s fault.  This might cause the deaths of various species and cause a lot of destruction and economic problems to humanity.  But that’s not bad or good.  We might call it bad (I would, certainly), but science won’t.  At lesat, good science won’t.  It just gives us information.  That’s why society’s values are so important:

Science should function in society and government much as it does when properly used in medicine. It cannot tell society what it values, but it can provide it with estimates of the likely outcomes of various courses between which society must choose. Take the example of second hand smoke. Science tells us that it increases the risk of heart and lung disease by a factor of approximately 1.3 in workers exposed to it eight or more hours a day. What we as a society do with that information depends upon what we value. Do we value the autonomy of the bar and restaurant owner more than the modestly increased risk of disease in nonsmokers who work in that owners’ bar or restaurant? Or do we value protecting workers from this risk more than the freedom of patrons to smoke and bar owners to choose to allow smoking in their bars? That is the political decision based on our values as a society