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It's also important to hold science accountable with a healthy level of skepticism. There have only been a few reports on HN of bad science, journal bias, bias

It's also important to hold science accountable with a healthy level of skepticism. There have only been a few reports on HN of bad science, journal bias, biased studies, and even potentially coverups (Theranos), but there are a lot more that occur that we don't notice. Science is not always real. Read past the headline, compare results, and follow the money.

lordCarbonFiber 10y ago
This post has little to do with science. You're talking about healthy media consumption with a misunderstanding on what being a published paper means. There's this huge disconnect among laypeople, which is probably the cause of the antiscience movement, that subscribes to the idea that once something is written down it becomes SCIENCE LAW. When infact all a peer reviewed article means is a group of qualifed folks couldn't see anything immediately wrong with your experimental setup that would color your results and so enter it into the total body of work. Then, when the next group wants to study in that field, they'll compare their results to yours, and either add credence to the established lexicon, or provide a competing hypothesis and body of evidence. With the exception of blatantly fraudulent studies (vaccines link to autism, early cold reports, etc) the idea that "science isn't always real" doesn't make much sense. Experiments can be flawed, conclusions can be faulty or incorrect, but the process behind them is still the same. There's neither anything stopping you from presenting a counter experiment; infact the community wants that. Just because the ideas behind good science doesn't sell papers, doesn't mean that it's not near 100% of the science being done.
Florin_Andrei 10y ago
If you say that, it pretty much shows you don't understand how science works. Science is all about fine tuning that healthy level of skepticism. That's what science does.
- vixen99 10y ago
  If you don't think 'follow the money' isn't a significant factor in how people (scientists included) work then you don't understand how human nature works.
- humanrebar 10y ago
  > Science is all about fine tuning that healthy level of skepticism. That's what science does. Science is a method. It doesn't do anything. Good science is an answer to honest skepticism. It doesn't create planets, change minds, or fly airplanes. It's a way to determine what is true and communicate our findings convincingly.
  - sdenton4 10y ago
    So the findings should be convincing, but not change minds, because that's not what science does?
    - humanrebar 10y ago
      Science has no mass or energy. It doesn't do anything. Talking about science as doing things (like changing minds) just confuses what it's about. This phrasing is popular and poetic, but in this case, the poetry confuses people, even scientists and science enthusiasts. Science doesn't save lives. Doctors do. We've used scientific methods to understand all sorts of things about the world. And we've used that understanding in all sorts of pursuits, good and bad, including curing diseases and transplanting organs. Saying science changes minds is like saying understanding, wisdom, technique, or knowledge do.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

lordCarbonFiber 10y ago

This post has little to do with science. You're talking about healthy media consumption with a misunderstanding on what being a published paper means. There's this huge disconnect among laypeople, which is probably the cause of the antiscience movement, that subscribes to the idea that once something is written down it becomes SCIENCE LAW. When infact all a peer reviewed article means is a group of qualifed folks couldn't see anything immediately wrong with your experimental setup that would color your results and so enter it into the total body of work. Then, when the next group wants to study in that field, they'll compare their results to yours, and either add credence to the established lexicon, or provide a competing hypothesis and body of evidence. With the exception of blatantly fraudulent studies (vaccines link to autism, early cold reports, etc) the idea that "science isn't always real" doesn't make much sense. Experiments can be flawed, conclusions can be faulty or incorrect, but the process behind them is still the same. There's neither anything stopping you from presenting a counter experiment; infact the community wants that. Just because the ideas behind good science doesn't sell papers, doesn't mean that it's not near 100% of the science being done.

Florin_Andrei 10y ago

If you say that, it pretty much shows you don't understand how science works. Science is all about fine tuning that healthy level of skepticism. That's what science does.

vixen99 10y ago
If you don't think 'follow the money' isn't a significant factor in how people (scientists included) work then you don't understand how human nature works.
humanrebar 10y ago
> Science is all about fine tuning that healthy level of skepticism. That's what science does. Science is a method. It doesn't do anything. Good science is an answer to honest skepticism. It doesn't create planets, change minds, or fly airplanes. It's a way to determine what is true and communicate our findings convincingly.
- sdenton4 10y ago
  So the findings should be convincing, but not change minds, because that's not what science does?
  - humanrebar 10y ago
    Science has no mass or energy. It doesn't do anything. Talking about science as doing things (like changing minds) just confuses what it's about. This phrasing is popular and poetic, but in this case, the poetry confuses people, even scientists and science enthusiasts. Science doesn't save lives. Doctors do. We've used scientific methods to understand all sorts of things about the world. And we've used that understanding in all sorts of pursuits, good and bad, including curing diseases and transplanting organs. Saying science changes minds is like saying understanding, wisdom, technique, or knowledge do.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]