Research assistance and editing. The book’s purpose is to contribute to a theory of scientific advising in which the paradox of scientific authority is resolved. The book provides an ethnography of the Gezondheidsraad (the Health Council of the Netherlands) in order to address questions about the role of science and technology in modern democracies, about the relation between scientific advice and policy making, and about possible new roles for scientists and citizens in technological democracies. Presented to (then) Queen Beatrix at the celebration of the centennial existence of the Dutch Health Council in 2002. The Book was later published by MIT Press.