Science is a fundamentally narrative practice, "a rule-governed craft of narrating the history of nature" in which "possible worlds are constantly reinvented in the contest for very real, present worlds:'38 Drawing on field studies of animals, for instance, scientists and popular science writers have told persuasive stories about the pacifism or violence inherent in human nature, about Man the Killer versus Man the Cooperator, with clear political implications.39 That science is storytelling does not make it incapable of producing truth, however. Animal studies generate facts, which may be confirmed or thrown to the dustbin of the out-moded, just as they yield stories about what human beings are and what differentiates us from the rest of the natural world.40 The scientific use of nonhuman animals is creative, even autobiographical.41 It can be science and science fiction all at once.42
Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles, Brad Bolman. 2025.
