There are so many ways that science can go wrong (by scientists) that it’s a wonder that any science gets done at all.

This is even before the problems of interference by finance and politics.

How science can go wrong:

• Rejection of outliers (eg. delayed the discovery of the ozone hole) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlier
• Cherry picking data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
• Low-hanging fruit
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy
• Feud (eg. Cope vs Marsh)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id%C3%A9e_fixe_(psychology)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
• Seeing things that aren’t there (eg. cold fusion, inkblot test, free quarks)
• Martian nanobes ALH84001 (ask me for details)
• False analogy
• “What I tell you three times is true” (how we learn)
• Accept as true what I fail to disprove
• Hoop jumping necessary for publication
• Lack of confidence
• Overconfidence
• Failure to see an alternative
• Delay in acceptance
• Holding onto a disproved idea (eg. Hoyle’s steady state)
• Bias of editors
• A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
• Knee-jerk reaction
• Lack of caring by reviewers
• Valid conclusion rejected because methods are suboptimal
• Proliferation of jargon
• “It’s been done before”
• P-value = miscalculated significance
• Time constraints
• Murphy’s Law (eg. “under the most carefully controlled conditions, the organism will do whatever it damn well pleases)
• Distraction
• “Failure is always an option”
• Inadequate quality control (eg. contamination)
• In chemistry, inability to purify
• Known errors become so familiar that they’re ignored (eg. fluid mechanics)
• Stability vs accuracy
• Correlation does not imply causation
• Small thinking
• Thinking that one possibility is the only possibility
• The right answer to the wrong question
• Inappropriate use of Occam’s razor
• Too hard basket
• Gaps in old work never filled in (eg. mesons and baryons)
• No repetition, failure to independently confirm

With all these innate problems, it’s a minor miracle that any good science ever gets done.

The last one seems to be a current plague in medical stuff.

You left of my No. 1:

Respect for authority.

The Rev Dodgson said:

You left of my No. 1:

Respect for authority.

I can think of an example where respect for authority delayed an extremely important discovery in my own field of fluid mechanics.

sounds like producing a viable neonate

and then enabling it to reach adulthood

I thought most of the decent science was serendipitous anyway

Arts said:

I thought most of the decent science was serendipitous anyway

You mean, when someone says “that’s funny…” could well mean something useful has been noticed?

:)

buffy said:

Arts said:

I thought most of the decent science was serendipitous anyway

You mean, when someone says “that’s funny…” could well mean something useful has been noticed?

:)

yep…
does it validate your theory? – nope
what does it tell you? – Holy cow…… what is that?
=
brilliance and a possible prize

Arts said:

buffy said:

Arts said:

I thought most of the decent science was serendipitous anyway

You mean, when someone says “that’s funny…” could well mean something useful has been noticed?

:)

yep…
does it validate your theory? – nope
what does it tell you? – Holy cow…… what is that?
=
brilliance and a possible prize

Example. Discovery of first white dwarf star.

For my entire practising career we have not known what glaucoma is. Not really. And we still don’t. I maintain that one day someone is going to go..“Hang on….” And once someone has the Eureka moment, then it will be possible to start sorting out a possible cure. But it’s taking a hella long time.

buffy said:

For my entire practising career we have not known what glaucoma is. Not really. And we still don’t. I maintain that one day someone is going to go..“Hang on….” And once someone has the Eureka moment, then it will be possible to start sorting out a possible cure. But it’s taking a hella long time.

There’s a retirement project for you.

Divine Angel said:

buffy said:

For my entire practising career we have not known what glaucoma is. Not really. And we still don’t. I maintain that one day someone is going to go..“Hang on….” And once someone has the Eureka moment, then it will be possible to start sorting out a possible cure. But it’s taking a hella long time.

There’s a retirement project for you.

I did have an idea, but when I brought it up with some academics about 20 years ago the disdain was obvious. I’m waiting for it to surface again.

probably needs a better name, sounds like a swearword, hissing cat or something

transition said:

probably needs a better name, sounds like a swearword, hissing cat or something

mathematics sounds like a party of syllables, why I say math

physics sounds good, you get to say an S as Z, any opportunity to Z an S warms my soul.

buffy said:

Divine Angel said:

buffy said:

For my entire practising career we have not known what glaucoma is. Not really. And we still don’t. I maintain that one day someone is going to go..“Hang on….” And once someone has the Eureka moment, then it will be possible to start sorting out a possible cure. But it’s taking a hella long time.

There’s a retirement project for you.

I did have an idea, but when I brought it up with some academics about 20 years ago the disdain was obvious. I’m waiting for it to surface again.

As you get older your eyes fill up with images increasing the pressure. Simple.

I think we should have hot cross buns all year, no one makes crumpets or rye bread only for a few weeks, madness.

probably an appreciation of proto science, there may be some shortcoming re that, you know kids do it (proto science, and physics)

at some stage formalism may alienate the origins, and out with the bath water goes the baby.

buffy said:

For my entire practising career we have not known what glaucoma is. Not really. And we still don’t. I maintain that one day someone is going to go..“Hang on….” And once someone has the Eureka moment, then it will be possible to start sorting out a possible cure. But it’s taking a hella long time.

OMG.

Is this a case of the “too hard basket”? Or is there some other barrier here?