This demonstrates some of the things I love about science and the scientific community. When a scientist makes an extraordinary claim, other scientists do research to reproduce the results and learn more. If a fraud matters, it will be found out. The other day it was found out that lots of fake scientific papers on computer science were submitted and somehow published. It took a long time to find this out because they werent of interest to anyone. Papers that matter are widely read and some are completely overlooked because they dont contribute to anyone elses research or technology. Another important point is that scientists or doctors who make a lot of fuss over their own work in the media are highly suspect. Serious scientists usually keep a low profile, at least until their work has been thoroughly vetted and reproduced by other indepent researchers. Please, please, please keep this in mind when you read articles by people using their credentials to make extraordinary claims that arent supported by anyone in the scientific community. For instance, Dr. Mercola, who is making millions of dollars selling supplements, makes a big name for himself and claims to be on the side of science, but hes against the consensus on climate, vaccines, says HIV doesnt lead to AIDS and almost anything that goes against the research, but appeals to alternative-loving folks. Unlike any real scientist or doctor that I know, he doesnt merely have opinions on things, hes CERTAIN about all these things outside his own professional knowledge base and he works to teach his ideas to the world at large. It makes this retired biology teacher cry... Rant over:-)
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:35:44 +0000
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