Contents:  A technocratic view of science. *  Soviet sociology of science. *  Typology of research in physics. *  ‘Pseudo-effects’ in experimental physics. *  Science and nationalism. *  Objective realism versus subjective relativism. *  Science and the postwar economy. *  Toward a methodology of experimental science? *  How trustworthy are experimental facts? *  Changing pattern of sponsorship in physics. *  Supranational applied ‘Big Science’: a case study. *  Runaway obsolescence? *  Is the sociology of scientific knowledge anti-science? *  Dennis Gabor, social thinker - 25 years on. *  Nobel stakes, Japanese IQ. *  Research breakthroughs and military expenditure.The author was born in Hungary and studied philosophy; during the revolution in 1956 he emigrated to England.He became a physicist in London.