3 ms·

It wasn’t a mistake. These guys made conscious decision to not disclose critical facts to hype up their findings and get on the NYT front page. This is extremel

It wasn’t a mistake. These guys made conscious decision to not disclose critical facts to hype up their findings and get on the NYT front page. This is extremely unfortunate because it’s almost becoming a pattern in many scientific fields. Researchers want fame and funding (or even worse get rich quick scheme). They put out claims of revolutionary results while sneaking away tiny little caveats that unsuspecting public might not even notice. They do this with full knowledge that all these doesn’t measure up to acceptable scientific ethics. Just getting on NYT front page means they will have immediate line up of less technical folks with funding and/or offers of higher up jobs. Even if at later date their claims gets busted, it’s mere little embarrassment that don’t get same level of publicity and everyone moves on saying “more work needed” while they have already cashed out from the hype they had created. Lots of people are playing this game and new people are encouraged to play it when they look at how other incompetent and ethically loose people quickly climbed the ladder. It’s truely a cancer in science.

PopePompous 9y ago
Yes. If you report a spectacular result, and it is not proven wrong within ~5 years, its effect on your career is almost the same as if the result had been correct. The unfortunate thing for these folks is that their claim was shot down quickly.
Radim 9y ago
Not just in science! The arms race between bullshit artists, finding shortcuts to extract resources "for free" using the right spin, and the rest of the society, is as old as world. This is even more pronounced in business: selling dreams has always been the surest way to profit. Who wouldn't want to believe the solution has been found and is easy and cheap? Note that there's no "fixing" this optimization arms race. Not even in principle—it's a core feature of Nature. Shortening the path between resource generation and resource consumption helps, the gradients are simpler and quicker to adapt. Keeping the rights and responsibilities closely tied, essentially. Science is certainly out of whack, with its reliance on a super complicated system of wealth redistribution and taxation (people who pay have no say).
pvaldes 9y ago
> Researchers want fame and funding, or even worse get rich quick scheme Of course they do. (Even worse?) Actors want to be mega-famous. Nobody bats an eye... Musicians and basketball players want fame and loads of money. Is perfectly ok. They deserve it for playing a bass or being able to hit a ball. Yes, eeeeverybody wants to get rich quick. The difference with scientists is that scientists get blamed for this all the time.

PopePompous 9y ago

Yes. If you report a spectacular result, and it is not proven wrong within ~5 years, its effect on your career is almost the same as if the result had been correct. The unfortunate thing for these folks is that their claim was shot down quickly.

Radim 9y ago

Not just in science! The arms race between bullshit artists, finding shortcuts to extract resources "for free" using the right spin, and the rest of the society, is as old as world. This is even more pronounced in business: selling dreams has always been the surest way to profit. Who wouldn't want to believe the solution has been found and is easy and cheap? Note that there's no "fixing" this optimization arms race. Not even in principle—it's a core feature of Nature. Shortening the path between resource generation and resource consumption helps, the gradients are simpler and quicker to adapt. Keeping the rights and responsibilities closely tied, essentially. Science is certainly out of whack, with its reliance on a super complicated system of wealth redistribution and taxation (people who pay have no say).

pvaldes 9y ago

> Researchers want fame and funding, or even worse get rich quick scheme Of course they do. (Even worse?) Actors want to be mega-famous. Nobody bats an eye... Musicians and basketball players want fame and loads of money. Is perfectly ok. They deserve it for playing a bass or being able to hit a ball. Yes, eeeeverybody wants to get rich quick. The difference with scientists is that scientists get blamed for this all the time.