Rob Newman thinks scientists belittle people. I sympathise: science is unsettling

Comedian Rob Newman is angry because he thinks scientists are too ready to devalue people and to belittle human experience. And that made me " curious

In an interview in last Sunday's Observer, comedian Rob Newman passed judgement on the scientific community. "Scientists think we're all stupid," he claimed. Worse still, we appear to him to be consumed by the view that "the nastier you can be about people then the more rigorous and critical your thinking must be."

In the court of Judge Newman, Stephen Hawking is guilty of calling human beings "scum"; Brian Cox stands accused of equating brains to computers; and Francis Crick (who's not alive to answer back) is to be censured for reducing the joys and sorrows of human existence to the product of molecular and cellular machinations. These are serious charges, but do they really stand up?