 The scientific investigator does not preserve the cleavage between the sacred and the profane, between that which requires uncritical respect and that which can be objectively analyzed.Merton suggested in closing the chapter that this characteristic of science, and the "diffuse, frequently vague apprehension [of threat] to the current distribution of power" that skepticism presents, rather than from any specific conflicts "which appear to invalidate particular dogmas of church, economy, or state".Conflict becomes accentuated whenever science extends its research to new areas toward which there are institutionalized attitudes or whenever other institutions extend their control over science.