The public is justifiably awed by the natural scientists' ability to explain so many mysterious phenomena and grateful for the research products that have reduced disease burdens, prolonged life, lightened manual labor, eased communication and travel, and contributed to national economies. The natural sciences enjoy such a high status that psychologists like to add the suffix science to a specialty domain in order to announce membership in a highly respected community. The study of perception, memory, and thought was named cognitive science; research on social phenomena that used biological measures was called social neuroscience. I suspect that the American Psychological Society changed its name to the Association for Psychological Science so that no one would confuse its members, many of whom do research, with those in the American Psychological Association, which is dominated by clinical psychologists.

E. O. Wilson reiterated the views of Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, when he urged all social scientists who wanted to make progress to relate their phenomena to biological processes. This mood of certainty, shared by other natural scientists, has so intimidated the other two cultures and the public that all three communities are slowly accommodating to the meanings understood by natural scientists, not unlike the barbarians who accepted the imposition of Latin by conquering Romans while privately remaining bilingual.