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There are some odd examples of experiments, and how famous scientists even centuries ago tended to 'fudge' things.
A month ago the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine each retracted a major study on Covid-19 drug therapies. One article had been up for more than a month, the other for less than two weeks. Both were based on faked data. That the rush to publish on Covid-19 led established researchers, reviewers and journals to skip elementary checks is deplorable, if not entirely surprising. But is there a more deep-seated crisis in scientific research?
...committees of academics will always tend to reward mediocrity and distrust originality. For this, I am sorry to say, there is no cure. Human beings are pack animals. In science, as in market economies, competition is always imperfect; but the solution is never to eliminate but always to regulate it.
The scientific method results in continuous improvement. So things can flip-flop with new data and bad studies will get exposed and retracted. This isn't a bad thing but rather a sign of better understanding of our world.
There are a lot of people that crave a permanent truth(like religious dogma) and can't accept that. I believe that is a big cause of the anti-intellectualism we see. They want everything to stay the same as what they learned as a child. New evidence that rewrites history becomes "revisionist history" as a negative rather than positive. Eggs are good or eggs are bad. Wear a mask or don't. All chip away at any trust they had in science, not realizing that updates are signs of science working.
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
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Originally Posted by notnamed
The scientific method results in continuous improvement. So things can flip-flop with new data and bad studies will get exposed and retracted. This isn't a bad thing but rather a sign of better understanding of our world.
There are a lot of people that crave a permanent truth(like religious dogma) and can't accept that. I believe that is a big cause of the anti-intellectualism we see. They want everything to stay the same as what they learned as a child. New evidence that rewrites history becomes "revisionist history" as a negative rather than positive. Eggs are good or eggs are bad. Wear a mask or don't. All chip away at any trust they had in science, not realizing that updates are signs of science working.
And what happens when one of the white coated deities simply makes up their "research" out of whole cloth? This guy is the one who finally convinced me to abandon any faith I ever had in "medicine" after I took one of the drugs he supposedly "researched" and my teeth fell out, among other side effects.
And what happens when one of the white coated deities simply makes up their "research" out of whole cloth? This guy is the one who finally convinced me to abandon any faith I ever had in "medicine" after I took one of the drugs he supposedly "researched" and my teeth fell out, among other side effects.
Anything can be scientifically proven if they are paid enough. There always seems to be two sides to science when there should only be one. This unfortunately makes debating a topic very difficult when both sides have science to back their theories.
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
20,955 posts, read 5,550,060 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mustangman66
Anything can be scientifically proven if they are paid enough. There always seems to be two sides to science when there should only be one. This unfortunately makes debating a topic very difficult when both sides have science to back their theories.
There's the point. Everyone has a price, including "scientists".
Bogus studies being discovered as such and retracted is an example of the process working, you doofuses.
A scientist is as prone to human weakness, vanity, stubbornness and folly as is every other person. That is why we gradually refined the process. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it's worked pretty damn well over the centuries. And it sure beats the alternatives.
So a handful of bad actors causes ALL OF SCIENCE to be invalid for you?
Same logic as All Cops Are Racist.
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