4 ms·
My first thought goes to heat from the router, not microwaves. Or maybe they get disturbed more often by someone fiddling with the router.
by blowski 3y ago
My first thought goes to heat from the router, not microwaves. Or maybe they get disturbed more often by someone fiddling with the router.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoI had a similar thought, something like varying levels of ambient humidity closer to the washroom. The experiment needs to be repeated in more controlled conditions. Surprised to see the HN crowd taking this obvious pseudoscience at face value.
- generalizations 3y agoI'm surprised to see experimentation being dismissed so readily.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoCalling for more rigorous experimentation is not a dismissal of experimentation. It's healthy to be critical about experimental methodologies and to call for more rigour before conclusions are drawn.
- eutropia 3y agoexperiments are not pseudoscience; we teach kids science via science fair projects doing very similar types of experiments. Pseudoscience is generally when you have an explanation for something but no evidence, and generalize that theory to explain too much
- AlecSchueler 3y agoNo, experimenting is not pseudoscience, but taking a single flawed experiment communicated anecdotally with no mention of setup or control and then moving into discussion about the "results" as if it was performed in any way reproducibly is pseudoscience. It presents itself as science but when you pick it apart it's actually lacking many mainstays of what we'd call scientific methodology.
- seunosewa 3y agoIt's not necessarily false, it's just less rigorous. So we can call it light science. Or amateur science? People shouldn't be discouraged from practicing science.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoOr we could call it pseudoscience? The rigour is what makes it science. Maybe it's false, maybe it's not, but right now we can only speculate. I'm not discouraging anyone; in fact, I'm encouraging repeating the experiment with more rigour, that is calling for more science.
- frankyg 3y ago[flagged]
- vGPU 3y agoThere have been several experiments that have showed similar findings, and I looked through half a dozen or so and didn’t find any that showed otherwise. Here’s one that you can browse: https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/75099 https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/75099
- greggsy 3y agoAlso possible that the experiment was just poorly designed, and the results poorly interpreted.
- Modified3019 3y agoLight would vs also need to be controlled. I certainly don’t do so well next to blue leds.