Science & Society

If you thought their publications were freaky get a load of how they look after a ton of plastic surgery. You may remember them from the Bogdanov affair many years ago.  They published papers in scientific journals that are very widely regarded as being bunk.  Some have even reached to call them outright fraudulent. I don't know about calling them frauds after all at least they believed that their theories were good.  (Unlike simply making up experimental results the way Jan Hendrik Schon did.)  So after being embroiled in a…

Propaganda: Desperately Misquoting Authorities Appeal to authority is not necessarily a logical fallacy. It is perfectly in order to present an argument and then bolster it with an accurate reference to an argument or finding by an acknowledged expert on the subject.  This is not only done when writing scientific papers.  It is a golden thread that binds together the founding principles of common law.  Lawyers in common law courts daily cite authorities to bolster their clients' cases.  Each opposing lawyer's task is to show that the citation may be distinguished; that it…

During a visit to Europe one feels its so cold at time of the year. I dint even bring sufficient clothing to face the low temperatures in May in central europe. India is facing 47 degree in Alwar , a place known for the tiger reserve and dense forests in the vicinity of Aravalli hills . The barren hills will work like fireplace and emit all the heat for the population. Jaipur is also surrounded by hills on all the sides and will meet same fate. Stop thinking that water is provided by Governments . Its provided by nature and if dont conserve water civilizations will be lost and next 30 years…

I recently saw an article that surprised me, and it isn't often I am surprised by anything that shows up on the Internet.   It was written by Adrienne J. Burke at the New York Academy of Sciences and titled "Conversations with seven Science 2.0 pioneers" but that isn't what surprised me either; Science 2.0 gets used all of the time and it is a registered trademark (of yours truly) but I only bothered to trademark it when people started trying to use it to make money.    The NYAS article is free so they aren't going to get a cease-and-desist or anything like that. But Burke…

Judging by recent polls, you would think that the environment is not much of a concern to Americans. And You would also be wrong, say researchers from Standford University. When pollsters ask Americans to name the most important problem facing the country, the environment is rarely mentioned. But these results change drastically if pollsters replace "country" with "world" in the question, the researchers say. "For years, the wording used in traditional surveys has systematically underestimated the priority that the public has placed on global warming and the environment," said Jon Krosnick,…

This piece about crumbling faith in expertise is making the rounds on the web (see also Becky's comments): The democratization of scientific expertise carries danger with it. If experts cannot be trusted in a world whose problems are complex, who do we trust? To many, it seems, the answer may just have to be themselves (or their social or political interest group). While it may have been unwise to give as much unguarded confidence as we have in the past to the experts on any issue, it is crazy to assume that our untested, "common sense," and sometimes skewed judgments on complex questions are…

I don't consciously seek out the Huffington Post, but two stories on Google News that caught my eye recently happened to be from there. I know how you love that site, Hank. Today's find is on the democratization of science, or the fall of experts from grace - what if we can't trust scientists and science? The article makes some thought-provoking points, whether you agree with all of the content or not. In particular, I like this paragraph: Our politics now seems to look to expertise more to buttress arguments than to answer questions. The result is that we use science to support value…

Pharmaceutical companies may be financing drug studies in order to influence their outcomes, say researchers writing in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. The findings confirm the conclusions of two previous reviews published in 2003 which looked at the pharmaceutical industry's influence on research, the authors say.   Researchers studied 57 publications obtained from a systematic Medline search from November 1, 2002 to December 16, 2009. Selected studies were evaluated by two of the authors. These 57 papers were supplemented by studies found in their references sections. They say…

In the spirit of collaboration between the sciences and religions, two Indian scientists have tuned their laboratory to the sacred mantra, OM. Their paper,"Time-Frequency Analysis of Chanting Sanskrit Divine Sound “OM” Mantra", published in the International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security (IJCSNS) starts in auspicious fashion. "Our attentiveness and our concentration are pilfered from us by the proceedings take place around us in the world in recent times. Different challenges and impediments are faced by the people work in the software industries. It is tough to handle the…

Following a drop in public confidence in climate scientists as a result of the 'Climategate' emails, two hundred fifty-five members of the National Academy of Sciences have joined together to defend the rigor and objectivity of climate science. Their signed statement, appearing  tomorrow in Science, explains the scientific research process and confirms the fundamental conclusions about climate change based on the work of thousands of scientists worldwide. It specifically reaffirms "compelling, comprehensive, and consistent objective evidence that humans are changing the climate in ways…