The pronounced uniformity of learning in the natural sciences is a symptom of the relatively high propensity of natural science disciplines to strive for and achieve consensus on matters of scholarly concern. The culture of consensus that pervades the natural sciences has significant effects on the prospects for scientific knowledge. Indeed, owing to the socially infused conception of scientific knowledge that has become increasingly influential in the last few decades, many scholars have begun to embrace the idea that consensus is an essential component of scientific knowledge — that is, that what it means for knowledge to be scientific is, in part, for it to be an object of consensus among relevant members of the scientific community.