In his famous 1974 commencement address at Caltech, Richard Feynman provided an inspiring counterexample of how science ought to be practiced. He began by warning against self-deception, the original sin of science, saying that "the first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool." To avoid self-deception scientists must bend over backward to report data that cast doubt on their theories. Feynman applied this principle specifically to scientists who talk to the public:

I would like to add something that's not essential to the science, but something I kind of believe, which is that you should not fool the laymen when you're talking as a scientist. . . . I'm talking about a specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, [an integrity] that you ought to have when acting as a scientist. And this is our responsibility as scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think to laymen.

(The above summary of Feynman's views on the challenge of objectivity in science is taken from Phillip Johnson's afterward in "Mere Creation", W.A. Dembski ed., InterVarsity Press, 1998.)