Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Science and Cell Phones

I continue to observe information regarding the safety, or lack thereof, of cell phones. This post describes a current ruckus over a couple of widely cited studies that may have been faked.

My thoughts? Oh for haven's sake, it's science. If the results are valid, they should be replicable. So try to replicate them, preferably with a team of scientists who don't already have a strong opinion about whether or not cell phones are safe and will therefore take a "let's see what happens when we do this" approach.

Faking a study is bad. It's also sadly common. Sometimes it can be more-or-less proven with contextual evidence. But the best way to demolish someone's nonsensical study is to do another one using real science. I'd like to see more data on this topic, and I'd like it to be science rather than propaganda in either direction.
Tags: science
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  • 7 comments
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ysabetwordsmith

ysabetwordsmith

September 6 2008, 15:51:03 UTC 12 years ago

Yeah ... in some ways I'm kind of disgusted by the state of science today. I think people aren't being as meticulous as the methodology calls for.
glitteringlynx

glitteringlynx

September 6 2008, 17:32:07 UTC 12 years ago

Oh hell not. I had several biology profs who would tell you that for the right price, you can "prove" anything. It was important for us to know, because it means you can't always trust an article just because it's published in a journal.

Sometimes it was just poor methodology, with some articles I read when researching studies on botanically-based drugs (marijuana, the cactus thing, the opium poppy, etc). That, or misinterpretation of the data, or other possibly unintentional errors were rather common among the articles we covered in the one class I had. But sadly there are a lot of corrupt scientists out there who are willing to botch results for some extra coin.
ysabetwordsmith

Too true!

ysabetwordsmith

September 7 2008, 01:13:49 UTC 12 years ago

It's disappointing when people twist things around and try to call it science.
glitteringlynx

Re: Too true!

glitteringlynx

September 7 2008, 01:36:32 UTC 12 years ago

Yup. Or sometimes blatantly invent false claims, like the one guy in Korea (was it?) years back who claimed he had cloned something like a human (?) and he hadn't and he was tossed out and then he killed himself (the suicide was a cultural thing I've noticed among SE Asian countries).

I forget the details but I think you know what I mean.