Scientific Skepticism Research Articles

Managing Laboratory Work through Skepticism: Processes of Evaluation and Control

Laboratory ethnographies are the shop-floor studies of the knowledge economy. Observational data from 11 months of fieldwork in a multidisciplinary neuroscience lab suggest that scientific skepticism, long understood as an evaluative mechanism, also serves social control and monitoring functions. The author applies insights from organization theory, social psychology, science studies, and the sociology of science to demonstrate that skepticism is socially organized at the microlevel of laboratory interactions. This organization makes skepticism a solution to the problems of control, coordination, and evaluation raised by uncertain scientific work conducted in a physically dispersed multidisciplinary setting. The diverse roles skepticism plays in laboratory interactions resonate with examinations of work in a number of occupational settings while providing direct insight into mechanisms that may account for the patterning of rewards and status across knowledge-intensive workplaces.

Managing Laboratory Work through Skepticism: Processes of Evaluation and Control

Laboratory ethnographies are the shop-floor studies of the knowledge economy. Observational data from 11 months of fieldwork in a multidisciplinary neuroscience lab suggest that scientific skepticism, long understood as an evaluative mechanism, also serves social control and monitoring functions. The author applies insights from organization theory, social psychology, science studies, and the sociology of science to demonstrate that skepticism is socially organized at the microlevel of laboratory interactions. This organization makes skepticism a solution to the problems of control, coordination, and evaluation raised by uncertain scientific work conducted in a physically dispersed multidisciplinary setting. The diverse roles skepticism plays in laboratory interactions resonate with examinations of work in a number of occupational settings while providing direct insight into mechanisms that may account for the patterning of rewards and status across knowledge-intensive workplaces

Implications of dysfunctional emotions for understanding how emotions function.

Consensus that emotions are functional and adaptive has reached such a level that contradictory evidence is no longer seriously considered, and the complex determinants of functionality are not fully appreciated. To remedy this complacency, the author draws attention to the nontrivial amount of dysfunctional emotion in everyday life, as well as to the many long-standing philosophical and religious traditions that counsel dispassion. This exercise is useful for tempering functionalist zeal and restoring scientific skepticism. It also demonstrates that the functionality of emotions depends critically on the appraisals that give rise to emotions, the choice and control of the behaviors motivated by emotions, and the socialization and training of emotions. These parameters, whether or not they are considered part of an emotion, must be considered part of what makes emotions functional.

The Heat Is on: The High Stakes Battle over Earth's Threatened Climate

In The Heat Is On, Ross Gelbspan exposes the deliberate campaign by oil and coal interests, teamed with conservative politicians, to confuse the public about global warming and the disruptive weather patterns that mark its initial stages. He shows how these fossil fuel proponents have supported the efforts of a small but highly vocal group of "scientific skeptics" whose statements distort the nature of scientific debate, raising doubts in the public mind about this threat which is, in fact, a matter of solid scientific consensus. Gelbspan sets the record straight with contributions from four of the world's leading climate scientists. Ironically, The Heat Is On also shows that the news about climatic change is now so bad that it may well help to save us as it brings the worldwide insurance industry, saddled with billions in unprecedented claims from weather-related damage, into the battle against fossil fuels. The book explains what this emerging alliance among the insurance industry, environmentalists, and a number of the world's most vulnerable nations must do to save the planet. Capturing both the global scope and the historical uniqueness of our dilemma, it shows that the price of inaction may extend well beyond flood-prone lowlands and drought-prone agricultural lands. One casualty could be democracy itself as nations faced with weather-related destabilization resort to totalitarian measures to control their populations.

Can biological activity be maintained at ultra-high dilution? An overview of homeopathy, evidence, and Bayesian philosophy.

Forty percent of general practitioners in the Netherlands practice homeopathy. With over 100 homeopathic medical schools, homeopathy is practiced in India along with conventional Western medicine in government clinics. In Britain, 42% of general practitioners refer patients to homeopaths. Two recent meta-analyses of homeopathy both indicate that there is enough evidence to show that homeopathy has added effects over placebo. Against this evidence is a backdrop of considerable scientific scepticism. Homeopathic remedies are diluted substances--some are so diluted that statistically there are no molecules present to explain their proposed biological effects (ultra-high dilutions or UHDs). Without knowledge of the evidence, most scientists would reject UHD effects because of their intrinsic implausibility in the light of our current scientific understanding. The objective of this article is to critically review the major pieces of evidence on UHD effects and suggest how the scientific community should respond to its challenge. Such evidence has been conducted on a diverse range of assays--immunologic, physiological, behavioral, biochemical, and clinical in the form of trials of homeopathic remedies. Evidence of UHD effects has attracted the attention of physicists who have speculated on their physical mechanisms. Included is a critique of several experiments that form the Benveniste affair which was sparked by a publication in Nature that advocated the existence of UHD effects of anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) on human basophils, and is the paradigm example of how a controversial phenomenon can split the scientific community. It is argued that if the phenomenon was uncontroversial, the evidence suffices to show that UHD effects exist. However, given that the observations contradict well-established theory, normal science has to be abandoned and scientists need to decide for themselves what the likelihood of UHD effects are. Bayesian analysis describes how scientists ought rationally to change their prior beliefs in the light of evidence. Theories by Kuhn and Lakatos indicate that whether UHD effects are proved or not depends on the beliefs and behaviors of scientists in their communities. This article argues that there is as yet insufficient evidence to drive rational scientists to a consensus over UHD effects, even if they possessed knowledge of all the evidence. The difficulty in publishing high-quality UHD research in conventional journals prevents a fair assessment of UHD effects. Given that the existence of UHD effects would revolutionize science and medicine, and given the considerable empirical evidence of them, the philosophies of science tell us that possible UHD effects warrant serious investigation by conventional scientists and serious attention by scientific journals.

Who is a visually impaired child?

Until the late 1700s, the eyes were thought to be the organs of sight while the visual function of the brain remained unclear. Just over a century ago a German professor of physiology, Hermann Munk, argued against scientific community scepticism that because blindness could be caused by damage to the occipital lobes, these anatomical areas must have an important function in vision1. During the Russo–Japanese war of 1904–5, Tatsuji Inouye, a Japanese physician and pioneer vision researcher, began to correlate the visual difficulties of soldiers with their head wounds, thereby increasing our understanding of the role of the brain in vision.

"If You Don't Know How to Fix it, Please Stop Breaking it!" The Precautionary Principle and Climate Change

Taking precautions to prevent harm. Whether principe de precaution, Vorsorgeprinzip, fore-var prinsippet, or forsiktighetsprincip, etc., the precautionary principle embodies the idea that public and private interests should act to prevent harm. Furthermore, the precautionary principle suggests that action should be taken to limit, regulate, or prevent potentially dangerous undertakings even in the absence of absolute scientific proof. Such measures also naturally entail taking economic costs into account. With the environmental disasters of the 1980s, the precautionary principle established itself as an operational concept. On the eve of the 1997 Climate Summit in Kyoto, precaution, as the precautionary principle is often referred to, has now become a key legal principle in environmental law, in general, and in current international climate negotiations, in particular, attempts to understand why. It examines in turn the natural affinity between the precautionary principle and climate change, reviews a series of issues which the principle raises, and discusses avenues which it opens paper, climate change fulfills the theoretical requirements set for the application of the precautionary principle. It comes as no surprise that the actual application of the precautionary principle in the context of climate change raises high political stakes. As a result, climate change science, in particular, and science, in general, is under the fire of politically-motivated scientific skeptics. Thus, by way of the counter-measures which must be put into effect, the precautionary principle calls for a greater sense of responsibility on the part of scientists and the public at large. Specifically, from scientists, it demands perseverance in rigor, excellence in communication, and committment to education. However, even if special efforts are made to implement the precautionary principle in the context of climate change, the success of climate change mitigation will constitute no test of the validity, the usefulness, or the efficiency of the precautionary principle. Indeed, the degree to which climate change mitigation succeeds only provides a measure of our kind's ability to manage responsibly the global commons which we inherited from our ancestors and which our generation enjoys, the global commons which we will pass on to today's children and to generations to come.

A Delicate Science: A Critique of an Exclusively Emic Anthropology

The increasing recognition of indigenous perspectives regarding religious practices such as shamanism and spirit possession offers a welcome respite from the excesses of scientific skepticism. Anthropologists may, however, become dogmatic in the opposite direction through accepting and even promoting at face value the officially presented "emic" view. At times, ritual practitioners themselves accuse one another of "faked possession" or exhibit other indications of a complex "native psychology." The Afro‐Brazilian possession rituals I have studied suggest the workings of a dynamic process of "negotiated reality." Must researchers with a genuine respect for the spirit world therefore eschew any psychocultural, sociological, or other looking‐in‐from‐the‐outside (etic) forms of inquiry? The ethnographic study of religions, like these spiritual traditions themselves, calls for the practice of a "delicate science" of anthropological exploration.

The Scientific Education and Technological Imagination of Emily Dickinson

The Scientific Education and Technological Imagination of Emily Dickinson Marianne Erickson (bio) (for Rowena Revis Jones, who couldn't join us at Innsbruck) In 1932, when Waldo Frank claimed that Emily Dickinson "based her explosive doubts upon the permanent premise of a sheltered private garden, to which she could always meditatively retire" (x), it is doubtful that he envisioned a machine in that pastoral New England Eden. Nevertheless, close readings of selected Dickinson poems and letters, considered along with what we know of her education, suggest that Dickinson was not only aware of, but positively influenced by nineteenth-century progress in science and technology. Dickinson presents a vision more scientific than sublime in a number of her writings, among them the tongue-in-cheek "microscope" poem, #185. "Faith" is a fine inventionWhen Gentlemen can see—But Microscopes are prudentIn an Emergency. (c. 1860) The poet tells us, effectively, that she approaches her crisis of faith not with blind credulity but with scientific skepticism. Much has been said about the sublime elements in Dickinson's poetry. As we shall see, her technological imagination is considerable as well. Dickinson's birth in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830 coincides with the year in which American inventor Robert L. Stevens invented the modern railroad rail: an invention that would significantly change the American landscape of the nineteenth century. Dickinson was [End Page 45] educated at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke, until terminating her formal studies in 1848. During her seven years at Amherst Academy, she studied Mental Philosophy, Geology, Latin, Botany, Ecclesiastical History, Algebra, Euclid, and that brand new science, Electricity. Her biographer G. F. Whicher gives the following assessment of the poet's early education: Mathematics, it is only too evident, was merely a hurdle to be surmounted in order to qualify for the Seminary. The "Mental Philosophy" recited by a girl of fifteen from Upham's manual cannot be taken seriously, nor can her acquaintance with Ecclesiastical History be supposed to have been more than perfunctory. The sciences, however, enlisted her interest, and her work in English composition called out her best powers. (47) At Mount Holyoke, under the tutelage of Mary Lyon, whom Dickinson's classmates nicknamed "the old she-dragon" (Whicher 64), the poet had the opportunity to develop her acute mental powers yet further, studying Ancient History, Chemistry, Physiology, Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, and yet more Algebra. An interesting trend in the mid-nineteenth century gave Dickinson the advantage of being excused from Botany, "in view of her proficiency in that subject" (Whicher 69). Young New England ladies of the time were wont to keep herbaria, a hobby to which Dickinson often alludes in her letters to Abiah Root. This obviously influenced her store of botanical knowledge to a marked degree; enough that Mount Holyoke's faculty considered her sufficiently versed in the subject to waive the Botany requirement. Shortly after the 1866 publication of poem #986, one of only three published during Dickinson's lifetime, Samuel Bowles commented on the poet's unlikely familiarity with agricultural matters. Dickinson writes of the snake, "He likes a Boggy Acre / A Floor too cool for Corn," to which Bowles replies, "How did that girl ever know that a boggy field wasn't good for corn?" Samuel Bowles's editorial has been preserved in the Dickinson annals (Whicher 118) and reminds us that her knowledge of botany was, indeed, quite extraordinary for a nineteenth century woman. Later, in poem 1775, we see Dickinson's appreciation of the pollination process. With a typical Dickinsonian twist, she adds "revery;" her salute to the sublime in nature. To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,One clover, and a bee,And revery.The revery alone will do,If bees are few. (Date unknown) [End Page 46] Similarly, she describes the unusual ornithophagology of the hummingbird as an elaborate meal, replete with music, in poem 500. Within my Garden, rides a BirdUpon a Single Wheel—Whose spokes a dizzy Music makeAs 'twere a travelling Mill— He never stops, but slackensAbove the Ripest Rose—Partakes without alightingAnd praises as he goes, Till every spice is tasted—And then...

'Spirituality as integrative energy': a philosophical analysis as requisite precursor to holistic nursing practice.

Spirituality is a universal human phenomenon, yet conceptual confusion, ambiguity and scientific scepticism have prevented adequate investigation into its potential healing effects. A recent resurgence of interest in non-medical sources of healing and holistic medical practices is causing increased speculation regarding the nature of spirituality. The lack of conceptual clarity, and absence of a precise theoretical definition, prevent recognition of spiritual distress and, hence, appropriate nursing intervention. In this paper, current usage and definitions of spirituality are discussed and a philosophical definition of 'spirituality as integrative energy' is proposed. The metaphysical nature of this phenomenon makes it the proper concern of philosophy; consequently, a philosophical analysis of the aforestated proposition was completed using the five predicables of logic theory: species, genus, differentia, logical property and logical accident. Implications of this definition for providing holistic nursing care are also presented.

The Production and Reception of Scientific Papers in the Academic-Industrial Complex: The Clinical Evaluation of a New Medicine

The production and reception of scientific papers in the academic-industrial complex have been neglected in sociology. In this article the social processes which influence the nature of the scientific paper in that complex are explored in depth by taking a number of controversial medical papers as case studies. The empirical evidence is collected and discussed in the light of sociological theories of normative ethos, paradigm development, reward-induced conformity and social interests in science. It is concluded that within the medical-industrial complex conformity to industrial interests can be a major criterion in defining the kind of reception given to a scientific paper and the professional autonomy of the authors in the paper's production, rather than an ethos of scientific scepticism or commitment to paradigmatic conventions. This is seen to have implications for the production of scientific knowledge - implications that might be in conflict with the public interest. Consequently, the desirability of current British Government proposals to intensify its policy of making science more responsive to the needs of industry may have significant drawbacks, hitherto unacknowledged in official circles, and in need of more extensive sociological investigation.

The science of desire: the search for the gay gene and the biology of behavior

Dean Hamer and his team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute made a remarkable discovery: in families with two brothers, 33 out of 40 pairs shared a distinctive pattern in one region of the X chromosone, a far higher number than chance alone would predict. DNA and family studies confirmed a much higher than average rate of homosexuality among male relatives on the mother's side of the family. The discovery of the marker - popularly, though inaccurately called the gay gene - launched a furious international debate about profound scientific, social and ethical issues. Would it be possible to test prenatally for it? And would parents abort a foetus with the gene? The author tackles these and other important questions with a mixture of scientific objectivity, scepticism and compassion.

Grebe/Bachems photometrische Analyse der Linienprofile und die Gravitations-Rotverschiebung: 1919 bis 1922

An effort of proponents of relativity theory to find evidence for the so-called gravitational red-shift of spectral lines as one of the experimental consequences of Einstein's generalized theory of relativity is reconsidered with reference to hitherto unpublished documents. It is shown how much interest Albert Einstein in fact took, around 1920, in the data analysis of Leonhard Grebe and Albert Bachem, who tried to explain why most earlier efforts to find the gravitational red-shift had failed. They carefully measured the line profiles of the spectral lines both in the sun's Fraunhofer lines and in pressure-independent laboratory comparison spectra. Then they rejected all lines with strong neighbouring lines which could cause apparent shifts of the line centres; the remaining seven well-isolated lines showed the gravitational red-shift with acceptable accuracy. Nevertheless, their claim to have successfully isolated the relativistic effect never convinced the astrophysicists of their day - the reasons for the scientific community's scepticism, contrasted against the enthusiastic group of Einstein sympathizers, are also discussed.

Teaching Hypothesis Testing by Debunking a Demonstration of Telepathy

Introductory psychology students were told that their instructor had telepathic powers. The instructor demonstrated these “psychic” abilities by transmitting various images into the minds of the students and a confederate. Students generated alternative hypotheses to account for the phenomena and designed methods to test their hypotheses. This article describes the methods used to perform the psychic acts and outlines the structure of the hypothesis-testing activity. By allowing students to experience firsthand the importance of the rules of science, this instructional method may encourage greater scientific skepticism than dose the direct teaching of the falseness of pseudoscientific claims.

Participants Debate Cold Fusion During MRS Spring Meeting Panel Session

Capping an exciting day at the 1989 Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society in San Diego, a special three-hour session on “cold fusion” was held Wednesday evening, April 26, following the plenary lecture by two-time Nobel laureate Prof. Linus Pauling. (See “Linus Pauling Addresses MRS in San Diego” elsewhere in this issue.)The session, the largest session in MRS history with over 1,700 participants, was sponsored by the Society to provide MRS meeting attendees with an unbiased scientific forum for the presentation and discussion of results and issues regarding recent “cold fusion” announcements in the press. The announcements had captivated the world's interest the preceding month while being met with a healthy amount of scientific skepticism. Such skepticism was not lost on the nation's cartoonists, many of whose works on “cold fusion” were shown during the evening's proceedings.The special session was organized and moderated by Meeting Cochair Richard W. Siegel, with the help of Angelica M. Stacy and Robin F.C. Farrow (also Meeting Co-chairs) and MRS President R.P.H. Chang. A distinguished panel of invited speakers from the nuclear fusion and materials research communities was assembled to discuss the purported fusion of deuterium nuclei dissolved in palladium or titanium at or near room temperatures.

Uchimura Kanzō and his ‘No Church Christianity’: Its Origin and Significance in Early Modern Japan

Debate over indigenization of Christianity continues in earnest even after the waning of the missionary zeal of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, set afire in no small measure by the wave of Great Awakening that swept New England and beyond. The context in which the Gospel of Christ is to be heard anew has ceased to be the God forsaken lands of heathens but is now one in which new challenges have emerged, ranging widely from Marxism and Islam, scientific scepticism and technological revolution, to urbanization and the rise of the ‘Third World’. In a country where since the early seventeenth century the Christians have scarcely numbered more than half of one percent of the population, the Gospel continues to intrigue the inquiring minds and the tired souls of the Japanese, particularly among the educated for many of whom the initial exposure to Christianity was through schooling or personal cultural enrichment. While many have regarded Christianity as a passage to Western culture and civilization when Japan still held the West in awe, worthy of emulation, others have taken upon themselves a more sobering, if troubling to some, task of inquiring whether the teaching of Christ could be the spiritual and social force to redeem and to transform the Japanese without relinquishing, if possible, but rather affirming the integrity of their own heritage. In no other country has a religious tradition exerted influence so far out of pro-portion to its membership as has Christianity in modern Japan.

How can we translate good science into good perinatal care?

ABSTRACT: Scientific skepticism, known more formally as the discipline of epidemiology, can help overcome five obstacles that impede perinatal care: seduction by authority, the false idol of technology, letting sleeping dogmas lie, the pursuit of pedantry, and numerators in search of denominators. When the seduction by authority is strong, epidemiology shows us how to judge data on their own merit and not on the stature of their proponent. Epidemiology teaches us that we need not blindly worship technology; that technology can be our servant, not our master. Epidemiology compels us to rouse those slumbering dogmas and make them prove their merit. Despite the powerful lure of medical pedantry, epidemiology shows us the way out of this multiple‐choice mentality. When we are still stinging from our last unpleasant case, epidemiology guides and sustains us through science, reason, and logic—rather than through clinical impression.

Star Wars Chief Takes Aim at Critics

Star Wars Chief Takes Aim at Critics

Instrumentalism and scientific skepticism

Instrumentalism and scientific skepticism

Evolution and utilization of Magsat

For a variety of reasons, some circumstantial, I have been acquainted with the development of the concept of satellite measurement of the terrestrial magnetic field since nearly its beginning. It was with more than usual interest therefore that I read the account by Langel, in the September 18 issue of EOS, of the developments that have led to the impending launch of Magsat. In reflecting on the article however, I feel that there are two omissions in Langel's account, which if not vital to an accurate picture of these developments, at least add a reality, particularly to that aspect of Magsat that is concerned with anomalies of crustal origin.The first omission concerns the pre‐1970 activities, when the concept was in its earliest stages. It was during this period that a collaboration arose between Gordon Andreasen of the U.S. Geological Survey and Joseph Cain, then of NASA, presently with the U.S. Geological Survey. This collaboration led to the earliest attempts to isolate magnetic anomalies that have their origin in the earth's crust. Andreasen and Cain were joined by Isidore Zietz of the Survey, who drew on his own pioneering experiences in aeromagnetics to add valuable insights to the efforts. As with all attempts of this type, the earliest results met with varying degrees of scientific skepticism. I think that Andreasen, Cain, and Zietz deserve credit not only for their foresight but for their courage and perseverance, which in my opinion played a seminal role in the long series of events that have resulted in Magsat.