4 ms·

> Many stories like this and people wonder why the general public is less "believing" in science lately. I. Eh im not sure bad studies is the cause. Scientist

by mam2 6y ago

> Many stories like this and people wonder why the general public is less "believing" in science lately. I. Eh im not sure bad studies is the cause. Scientists, especially doctors, wanting to use their authority i some debates while 2 of them can be saying completely opposed things maybe, however, contribute...

speeder 6y ago
Problem is more serious than that. What is happening is that the bad studies are being used for policymaking. Examples: the "nutrition pyramid" that encouraged carbohydrates and blamed health issues on animal-based food, was later found out to be based on research that was blatantly corrupt, with researchers getting bribes from food industry to manipulate or hide results (a case of hiding results: one researcher that found out that vegetable oil causes decrease of blood cholesterol, also found WHY it happened, but omitted that part from his paper... the reason is that cholesterol is needed for cell maintenance, and consuming only vegetable oils cause a deficit from it, the body pulls cholesterol from the blood to repair itself, and even that might not be enough, with some people suffering damage). Or a lot of pharma circlejerking that turns into law or regulations. Or the paper mentioned in the article, that was about video-games and aggression, with many countries passing laws regulating video game consumption based and such papers. Or the original reason Cannabis was banned (long story short: part of the reason is that they wanted to ban hemp fibers, that was being an obstacle to some newly invented synthetic fibers, some of the government people involved, had stocks of Dupont and other fiber companies, and "accidentally" banned hemp fibers while "trying" to ban the drug, based on manipulated and fraudulent science). Or more seriously: the papers that recommended "Austerity" and basically destroyed the livehoods of millions of people, later were found out to have math errors that changed the conclusion completely. And the list goes and goes on.
- ncmncm 6y ago
  Hemp fiber was in competition with wood fiber harvested from Hearst-owned western-US forest land. Hearst also owned a newspaper chain, and found using it an easy way to eliminate the competition. Hemp is both cheaper and better-quality than the wood fiber for paper, but had no newspaper-chain backing.

by mam2 6y ago

speeder 6y ago

Problem is more serious than that. What is happening is that the bad studies are being used for policymaking. Examples: the "nutrition pyramid" that encouraged carbohydrates and blamed health issues on animal-based food, was later found out to be based on research that was blatantly corrupt, with researchers getting bribes from food industry to manipulate or hide results (a case of hiding results: one researcher that found out that vegetable oil causes decrease of blood cholesterol, also found WHY it happened, but omitted that part from his paper... the reason is that cholesterol is needed for cell maintenance, and consuming only vegetable oils cause a deficit from it, the body pulls cholesterol from the blood to repair itself, and even that might not be enough, with some people suffering damage). Or a lot of pharma circlejerking that turns into law or regulations. Or the paper mentioned in the article, that was about video-games and aggression, with many countries passing laws regulating video game consumption based and such papers. Or the original reason Cannabis was banned (long story short: part of the reason is that they wanted to ban hemp fibers, that was being an obstacle to some newly invented synthetic fibers, some of the government people involved, had stocks of Dupont and other fiber companies, and "accidentally" banned hemp fibers while "trying" to ban the drug, based on manipulated and fraudulent science). Or more seriously: the papers that recommended "Austerity" and basically destroyed the livehoods of millions of people, later were found out to have math errors that changed the conclusion completely. And the list goes and goes on.

ncmncm 6y ago
Hemp fiber was in competition with wood fiber harvested from Hearst-owned western-US forest land. Hearst also owned a newspaper chain, and found using it an easy way to eliminate the competition. Hemp is both cheaper and better-quality than the wood fiber for paper, but had no newspaper-chain backing.