Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in creative work on scientifc ignorance and uncertainty, which can be traced in part to a realization that ignorance and uncertainty cannot always be reduced or banished from science, and that they are social and cultural products rather than merely "part of the phenomenon. " The fact that ignorance is negotiable and yet fundamental to scientific work poses several important dilemmas and prospects. We may be participating in a shift from the traditional research strategies of reducing or banishing ignorance toward a deeper understanding of and greater capacity to cope with ignorance.