The theoretical biologist Waddington (1975, 16ff.) drew attention to the damage to scientific progress by COWDUNG – the Conventional Wisdom of the Dominant Group. Despite Popper’s (1979, 341ff.) attack on what he called “the bucket theory of science”, that scientific knowledge accumulates incrementally, adding one fact after another, this is now conventional wisdom among biologists. Denis Noble is challenging not only the Neo-Darwinist orthodoxy dominating biology, but revealing the distortions of science produced by this bucket theory of science. The latter is central to understanding the importance of his argument and for seeing the relevance of his work for biosemiotics.

理论生物学家Waddington（1975，16ff。）提请注意COWDUNG –统治集团的传统智慧对科学进步的损害。尽管波珀（1979，341ff。）抨击了他所谓的“科学桶理论”，但科学知识是逐渐积累的，一个又一个地增加了一个事实，这现在已成为生物学家的常识。丹尼斯·诺布尔（Denis Noble）不仅在挑战新达尔文主义正统生物学，而且还在揭示这种桶形科学理论所产生的科学扭曲。后者对于理解他的论点的重要性以及了解他的工作与生物符号学的相关性至关重要。