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Science And The Premature Press Release

Posted by timothy on from the appeals-to-common-sense dept.

Dr. Dew writes: "The San Francisco Chronicle's story on misinterpreted research, erroneous claims, and the vagaries of cutting-edge science is an interesting read. Fortunately, it's less fun thinking about knowing it all, and more fun figuring out how to discover and learn the next thing."

3 of 10 comments (clear)

  1. Misconception by forkspoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is a general misconception in society about many topics in science. Releasing conclusions to early (leading to frequent retractions) adds quite a bit to this problem. People tend to trust science less because it seems like its constantly changing in fundamental ways that disprove all older ideas, which is partially true, but in fact is an essential part of the scientific process.

    Thanks,

    Travis
    travis_hadley@hotmail.com

  2. My Parents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    My Parents no longer believe anything reported as Science.


    I mean it, if a Scientific report came out that declaired the Internet does indeed exist they would sell their computer because obviously they haven't been accessing anything with it.


    Never mind the massive collection of bookmarks they have.

  3. peer review by M-G · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This article points out one of the important aspects of scientific research: peer review. Claims made by one group of researchers are tested by others. This either validates the original results, raises questions about them, or shows them to be fraudulent.