Sunday, September 23, 2007

Science has a trust issue

Irony alert. A scientific study shows that scientific studies are mostly false:

"There is an increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims," Dr. Ioannidis said. "A new claim about a research finding is more likely to be false than true."

If you can unwrap yourself from the circular logic involved, you can consider the problem with global warming science and many other areas that have political implications or interactions. Politics demands certainty, even hyperbole to get people 'motivated'. Motivation yields to over-eagerness to make something true. This never makes it so, but makes the 'science' around it suspect as scientists either tweak statistics or get fooled into premature conclusions.

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