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Unfair. Up until just a few years ago, genome sequencing cost thousands or hundreds of millions of dollars or was impossible. How was anyone going to check? The

• pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  >How was anyone going to check? // ... that is why one shouldn't trust the current science establishment, writ large, IMO. If you ascribe to a falsificationist/Popperian scientific method as most claim to do in the scientific establishment then what you should have been claiming is that "our best theory, as yet unfalsified, is that all cells of the human body have the same DNA". It is in no way contingent on the ability of anyone to check, because scientific statements [within the aforementioned philosophical frameworks] can not be confirmed to be true. That's as strong as it gets, that's the most that "science" can say; but instead of keeping within the epistemological limits of scientific enquiry scientists want to go further [arguably they long for certainty with a sort of religious fervour], so they say things like "all human cells share the same DNA" and print it in text books, and repeat it year after year to school kids and anyone else listening. Then, when it turns out that it's wrong that is the point where people don't trust "science", and quite rightly so IMO. The story now is "science was wrong" whilst in fact it was the scientist who refused to keep to the limits of what science can offer with regards to certainty that were wrong. I think you can argue the pushing of facts to be blindly accepted(!) as a methodology for teaching of science, but I don't find that line of argument compelling; it's also something that most scientists will rail against when done outside of the scientific establishment. [Sorry, but still smarting from high-school chemistry "well actually all that stuff we told you about atoms being like solar-systems was a huge lie, s- p- d- and f- orbitals is where it's at", only then to be told 2 years later "oh, that was all a huge lie, electrons aren't confined in that way, they don't even orbit".] >The statement is almost entirely true // Lol, are you a politician, this is what's also known as "false". The statement that "all of a person's cells [share] the same DNA" (by danjoc) has been demonstrably false for years, _THAT_ is science. I'm surprised to see this sort of defence of anti-scientific thinking from you [you don't know me I just know your work]. The little bits where a statement that appeared a priori to be true yet isn't, they are the interesting bits, they're the bits where scientific curiosity is focussed, they're usually the important bits. "It's nearly right" is anathema to scientific progress.
  • fao_ 10y ago
    > Then, when it turns out that it's wrong that is the point where people don't trust "science", and quite rightly so IMO. The story now is "science was wrong" whilst in fact it was the scientist who refused to keep to the limits of what science can offer with regards to certainty that were wrong. Actually, in most cases it isn't the scientists themselves, it is the PR department, or the journalists that are simply looking for a story
  • gwern 10y ago
    > I'm surprised to see this sort of defence of anti-scientific thinking from you [you don't know me I just know your work]. You obviously don't, as you would then know that I am very comfortable with approximations and continuums of belief. 'All of a person's cells share the same DNA' is far more true than its negation 'all of a person's cells do not share the same DNA'.