At http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/
We find these many references to criticism in science:

“ For it is only by critical thought that we can eliminate false theories, and determine which of the remaining theories is the best available one, in the sense of possessing the highest level of explanatory force and predictive power.”

“…(that) .all scientific criticism must be piecemeal, i.e. he holds that it is not possible to question every aspect of a theory at once.”

“…we make theoretical progress in science by deliberately subjecting our theories to critical scrutiny…”


at http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/evolution/history/spandrel.shtml
We find STEPHEN JAY GOULD AND RICHARD C. LEWONTIN
writing:
REPUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON: GOULD, S. J. AND LEWONTIN, R. C., "THE SPANDRELS OF SAN MARCO AND THE PANGLOSSIAN PARADIGM: A CRITIQUE OF THE ADAPTATIONIST PROGRAMME," PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, SERIES B, VOL. 205, NO. 1161 (1979), PP. 581-598.
An adaptationist programme has dominated evolutionary thought in england and the united states during the past forty years. (snip) We criticize this approach and attempt to reassert a competing notion (long popular in continental europe) that organisms must be analyzed as integrated wholes, with baupläne so constrained by phyletic heritage, pathways of development, and general architecture that the constraints themselves become more interesting and more important in delimiting pathways of change than the selective force that may mediate change when it occurs.

at http://vivisimo.aaas.org/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?input-form=simple&query=criticize+astronomy&v%3Asources=AAAS-Google&v%3Aproject=query-meta&search.x=12&search.y=7
we find
. Science -- Chapman 287 (5450): 46 [new window] [preview]
Planetary Science. Scientific Community. Astronomy. ... too common in scientific culture.
As we learn to criticize others (an essential activity in science), we gain ...
URL: www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/287/5450/46 - show in clusters