The Missing Skull - Professor Lundborg and the mismeasure of grandma

- The author's grandmother, Elsa, was an early female student at Uppsala University.
- Simultaneously, racial biology was in the ascendance and Elsa became study material.
- The conclusions regarding Elsa illustrates that racial biology was Bad Science.

What is science? Or, more pertinently, what is good science? This question is central for all practitioners of science and one of the most important to convey to our students. For those of us working in interdisciplinary settings - my own department covers everything from humanities to political and natural science - the question becomes even more complicated when traditions from different disciplines collide. For me personally, whenever I think too highly of my own research and risk deviating into bad scientific practices, I think of my paternal grandmother, Elsa. Although long dead, she brings me back into the fold of good science - or so I hope - by urging me to take another turn at critically evaluating how I perform research and to keep my arrogance in check.