In her book Kate McCann says she relaxed a little when she watched the video of Grime's dogs. The reason she gave was;
This was not what I would call an exact science [madeleine]
I wonder what she meant? Assuming she understood the different kinds of science, would she know what an exact science is? As a mathematician I think she did, considering they are also called the exact mathematical sciences.
So searching with dogs isn't an exact science, but nether is medicine. It's an applied science.
Then we have 'formal' sciences, which are not sciences in the way exact sciences are. Statistics is an example of a formal science.
The social sciences include politics and economics. They concentrate on social systems.
Behavioural science studies human behaviour and tries to generalise about all humans or groups. Psychology is a behavioural science.
So when people say cadaver dogs should be, or have been, scientifically tested they are referring to a word with many meanings and standards of proof. Using the word 'science' means nothing concrete in my opinion because it has many meanings. It sounds good, but what does it mean in relation to testing the work of sniffer dogs?
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