Comments on: It must be true. I heard it on the Internet.

By: That’s all the lumber you sent | slacktivist

That’s all the lumber you sent | slacktivist — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 02:03:02 +0000

[...] do you?’”“The greatest strength of the ‘net is that it gives everyone a voice, and the greatest weakness of the ‘net is that it gives everyone a voice.”“So how do you determine if a controversial statement is scientifically true? It can [...]

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:15:03 +0000

@Daniel
In Jr. High, I learned that Matter could not be created or destroyed.
In High School, I learned that Matter and Energy could not be created or destroyed.
In College, I learned that nature shall not get caught creating or destroying matter and energy

In an overly simplistic way, a major advance in physics, culminating with the Manhattan project, was understanding and utilizing the fact that what I learned in Jr. High was “wrong.”

By: Techs

Techs — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 14:24:58 +0000

@26. Peter B and @29. Daniel J. Andrews
Wasn’t expecting any replies let alone good polite ones.
One of the problems with massive reading is remembering where it came from. Once upon a time you could Google and find what you were looking for very quickly. Now you get millions of unrelated finds with the ones who paid cash first. The scientists would be impossible to find again. I don’t remember if i read it in a science journal or on an internet science blog. I will try to remember it in reverse with what things that were cultural beliefs.

I have kind of given up on people as they insist on being very stupid and have stopped maintaining researched backgrounds and remembering details that no one will listen too.

As to things that didn’t make sense, that was along time ago. As to professionals I didn’t mean individuals but a profession’s beliefs at a certain time in history. We have many from previous centuries we tout but few from the past several generation who are still in charge. The 50′s and 60′s were rife with misconceptions in science and not just dinosaurs.

My apologies. I suffer from long term depression but will try to remember and locate what I can. It would be fun to remember the details. You may now dismiss me from your minds.

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 00:09:19 +0000

Greg Laden’s Blog has an article that touches on this: “Wikipedia Wars.” Here’s the link to his source at PLoS:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0038869
Dynamics of conflicts in Wikipedia

By: Paul G.

Paul G. — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:37:15 +0000

Who’s this Dr. Plait guy he keeps talking to?

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:24:48 +0000

It’s prudent to go with the concensus answer ONLY if it adequately responds to the question. The problem is that so often agenda and spin separate the two by introducing confusion and bias.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:06:10 +0000

Techs said, “In the 80′s several scientists found that their experiments were failing. checking they found that as children they were told a number of things were scientific fact and of course accepted it. Now they had to research those “facts” before they could continue.”

What Peter B said. Please post examples of this. It sounds fascinating and rather unbelievable so I’d love to be able to toss a few of these examples into my next lecture.

As an aside, I was taught that if the earth stopped rotating we’d all fly off the earth as gravity failed. It confused me for years and only till near the end of high school did I realize that all the other information (physics, for e.g.) I was learning contradicted what I’d been initially taught in grade school. So to find an example of scientists learning something wrong and not having all the other information they were learning contradicting it would be something that would be worthy of a few psychology/sociology papers, I imagine.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:26:31 +0000

@23 Nigel – I think I should have said “difficulty” rather than “problem”. I just meant that it makes it more difficult to tell what’s what. Especially for beginners, who may not be aware of other sources.

@25 “In Schadenfreude We Trust.” Hilarious.

@27 Peter Davey – Your second line is actually my motto: “Doubt begets certainty” or “DVBIVM CERTVM GIGNET”. (I think I have the syntax right.) If you haven’t really examined your beliefs, any certainty you feel in them is baseless. And of course, doubt should not be conflated with disbelief.

By: Peter Davey

Peter Davey — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:08:16 +0000

Those that start with certainties will end with doubts.

Those that start with doubts will end with certainties.

I suppose it all depends how we define “start” and “end”, and “doubt” and “certainty” for that matter.

By: Peter B

Peter B — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:44:04 +0000

Techs @ #20 said: “In the 80′s several scientists found that their experiments were failing. checking they found that as children they were told a number of things were scientific fact and of course accepted it. Now they had to research those “facts” before they could continue.”

Interesting! Who were these scientists and what were they working on?

“I read libraries as a child in the 60′s, college libraries in the early 70′s and noticed things that didn’t fit and that many “beliefs” from professionals that didn’t make sense.”

What things and which professionals?

“It has been very satisfying to see them change their “beliefs” to mine over the decades.”

Can you provide some examples, please?