By David Takacs. The Johns Hopkins University Press. These scholars scrutinize scientists as though they were merely members of another tribe, like teen-age mall rats or the Taliban, compelled by their own peculiar cultural influences. Needless to say, some scientists have not taken kindly to this treatment. In recent meetings and books, scientists have denounced science studies as pretentious gibberish at best, and at worst as a left-wing plot to undermine science.
Some science studies invite such criticism simply by choice of topics.
But when applied to the right field and carefully done, science studies more than proves its worth. It points the way to a science that is more self-aware and thus more capable of achieving what the philosopher Sandra Harding calls ''strong objectivity.'' ''The Idea of Biodiversity'' demonstrates the genre's potential. The author, David Takacs, who obtained a joint degree in science studies and environmental science from Cornell University and who now teaches at California State University, Monterey Bay, scrutinizes conservation biology, whose adherents are attempting both to document humanity's destruction of nature and to arrest it. This analysis is timely, coming as it does when an anti-environmental ''brownlash'' has the green movement on its heels. He believes that the questions raised by conservation biologists are the most important facing humanity today, and he shares their passionate love of nature.