Sep 23, 2016 10:28 AM
The Inevitable Evolution of Bad Science
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archi...ce/500609/
EXCERPT: [...] Over time, the very culture of science is sculpted by natural selection—and according to Paul Smaldino and Richard McElreath, it is headed in an unenviable direction. The problem, as others have noted, is that what is good for individual scientists is not necessarily what is good for science as a whole. A scientist’s career currently depends on publishing as many papers as possible in the most prestigious possible journals. More than any other metric, that’s what gets them prestige, grants, and jobs.
Now, imagine you’re a researcher who wants to game this system. Here’s what you do. Run many small and statistically weak studies. Tweak your methods on the fly to ensure positive results. If you get negative results, sweep them under the rug. Never try to check old results; only pursue new and exciting ones. These are not just flights of fancy. We know that such practices abound. They’re great for getting publications, but they also pollute the scientific record with results that aren’t actually true. As Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet once wrote, “No one is incentivized to be right. Instead, scientists are incentivized to be productive....”
The Problem With Science Writing
http://m.nautil.us/blog/the-problem-with...ce-writing
EXCERPTS: [...] For every article singing the praises of new science, how often do you see one that is critical? Not often. Unless you’re talking about eugenics or fission bombs, a new scientific result or technology is almost always treated as an unequivocally good thing.
If by “science” we simply mean its ideal description—the construction of models that give good explanations for data and predict phenomena—sure, that’s a good thing. But that represents just one part of the modern-day scientific enterprise, which also includes technology, policy, and politics. Since a powerful enough scientific result can have unforeseen consequences in all of these domains, we need to be that much more critical to understand its significance.
The porous boundary between journalism and PR is not the only contributor to oversimplified science reporting. [...] The public is isolated from the scientific world and there are stark barriers an ordinary person must overcome to get an education. [...] what I recommend to readers is to form your own model of science. Doing so necessitates some understanding of philosophy and some familiarity with the culture and industry of science, warts and all. The effort’s worth it: It will lead you to the land between total skepticism and unshakable faith—the only place where any garden of ideas will grow....
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archi...ce/500609/
EXCERPT: [...] Over time, the very culture of science is sculpted by natural selection—and according to Paul Smaldino and Richard McElreath, it is headed in an unenviable direction. The problem, as others have noted, is that what is good for individual scientists is not necessarily what is good for science as a whole. A scientist’s career currently depends on publishing as many papers as possible in the most prestigious possible journals. More than any other metric, that’s what gets them prestige, grants, and jobs.
Now, imagine you’re a researcher who wants to game this system. Here’s what you do. Run many small and statistically weak studies. Tweak your methods on the fly to ensure positive results. If you get negative results, sweep them under the rug. Never try to check old results; only pursue new and exciting ones. These are not just flights of fancy. We know that such practices abound. They’re great for getting publications, but they also pollute the scientific record with results that aren’t actually true. As Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet once wrote, “No one is incentivized to be right. Instead, scientists are incentivized to be productive....”
The Problem With Science Writing
http://m.nautil.us/blog/the-problem-with...ce-writing
EXCERPTS: [...] For every article singing the praises of new science, how often do you see one that is critical? Not often. Unless you’re talking about eugenics or fission bombs, a new scientific result or technology is almost always treated as an unequivocally good thing.
If by “science” we simply mean its ideal description—the construction of models that give good explanations for data and predict phenomena—sure, that’s a good thing. But that represents just one part of the modern-day scientific enterprise, which also includes technology, policy, and politics. Since a powerful enough scientific result can have unforeseen consequences in all of these domains, we need to be that much more critical to understand its significance.
The porous boundary between journalism and PR is not the only contributor to oversimplified science reporting. [...] The public is isolated from the scientific world and there are stark barriers an ordinary person must overcome to get an education. [...] what I recommend to readers is to form your own model of science. Doing so necessitates some understanding of philosophy and some familiarity with the culture and industry of science, warts and all. The effort’s worth it: It will lead you to the land between total skepticism and unshakable faith—the only place where any garden of ideas will grow....
