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+31 +1
Are scientists less prone to motivated reasoning?
A new study lays out a bit of a conundrum in its opening paragraphs. It notes that scientific progress depends on the ability to update what ideas are considered acceptable in light of new evidence. But science itself has produced no shortage of evidence that people are terrible at updating their beliefs and suffer from issues like confirmation bias and motivated reasoning. Since scientists are, in fact, people, the problems with updating beliefs should severely limit science's ability to progress.
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+3 +1
Correction to climate change study highlights flaws in peer-review process
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Scientists and journalists alike were reminded of that oft-quoted phrase by famed cosmologist Carl Sagan when authors of a study published in Nature admitted this week that they needed to issue a correction. The study was widely covered by outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC and Scientific American. While the correction, which has yet to appear, may provide fodder for climate change skeptics, many in the scientific community are praising the authors...
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+28 +1
People are “consistently inconsistent” in how they reason about controversial scientific topics
There are various issues on which there is a scientific consensus but great public controversy, such as anthropogenic climate change and the safety of vaccines. One previously popular explanation for this mismatch was that an information deficit among the public is to blame. Give people all the facts and then, according to this perspective, the public will catch up with the scientists. Yet time and again, that simply hasn’t happened.
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+18 +1
It's Gonna Get a Lot Easier to Break Science Journal Paywalls
Scientific search engines are the Napster of academic papers—and they're only getting more powerful.
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+27 +1
Ohio State revokes Arizona professor's Ph.D., questioning her findings on video games
U of Arizona professor's Ph.D. is revoked after her findings on violent video games are questioned. Some wonder if her mentor and co-author is also to blame.
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+15 +1
Popular class of drugs reverse potentially harmful genetic changes from heart disease
Beta blockers are commonly used world-wide to treat a variety of cardiovascular conditions, such as arrhythmias and heart failure. Scientists have known for decades that the medications work by slowing the heart rate and reducing the force of contraction - lessening the burden of work carried out by the heart. However, new research out of York University has now shown that these drugs also reverse a number of potentially detrimental genetic changes associated with heart disease.
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+27 +1
107 cancer papers retracted due to peer review fraud
New papers were found through investigations into previous fraud.
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+37 +1
TSRI Scientists Find Brain Hormone that Triggers Fat Burning
Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a brain hormone that appears to trigger fat burning in the gut. Their findings in animal models could have implications for future pharmaceutical development. “This was basic science that unlocked an interesting mystery,” said TSRI Assistant Professor Supriya Srinivasan, senior author of the new study, published today in the journal Nature Communications.
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+16 +1
Science falling victim to ‘crisis of narcissism’
Cut-throat atmosphere in world-class labs and conferences closer to House of Cards than Big Bang Theory, says Swiss academic. By Hannah Devlin.
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+31 +1
Is Climate Change Shrinking Glaciers? Likelihood Is 99 Percent
The lifetime of a glacier — an enormous slow-moving river of ice — can span many thousands of years. And while glaciers are dynamic, changes to their length and volume happen at an extremely sluggish pace. However, over the last century a number of glaciers in mountain regions around the world dwindled significantly, diminishing in size and abandoning their farthest recorded boundaries (where they attach to land).
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+44 +1
Fake Science News Is Just As Bad As Fake News
A Canadian journalist set out to get a fake article published in a scientific journal. By Bryson Masse.
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+6 +1
Homeopathy officially doesn't work according to the US government
There is a huge market in the US for homeopathic remedies. In 2007 alone, it was estimated Americans spent more than $3bn on a controversial system of alternative medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, and which has long been dismissed by mainstream science. Now, the US government is requiring that producers of such items ensure that if they want to claim they are effective treatments, then they need to make available the proof. Otherwise, they will need to point out that there is “no scientific evidence that the product works”.
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+4 +1
What has happened down here is the winds have changed
"We have now reached the 'emperor has no clothes' phase. When seemingly solid findings in social psychology turn out not to replicate, we’re no longer surprised." By Andrew Gelman.
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+3 +1
Sugar industry bought off scientists, skewed dietary guidelines for decades
Back in the 1960s, a sugar industry executive wrote fat checks to a group of Harvard researchers so that they’d downplay the links between sugar and heart disease in a prominent medical journal—and the researchers did it, according to historical documents reported Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. One of those Harvard researchers went on to become the head of nutrition at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he set the stage for the federal government’s current dietary guidelines.
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+15 +1
New Published Results on the 'Impossible' EmDrive Propulsion Expected Soon
New results on the controversial, “impossible” EmDrive propulsion system could be soon published in a prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal, according to credible rumors. “It is my understanding that Eaglework’s new paper has been today accepted for publication in a peer-review journal, where it will be published,” said high-reputation poster José Rodal, Ph.D, on the NasaSpaceFlight forum, which is often the primary source of updates for all things EmDrive. “Congratulations to the Eagleworks team!” The poster added that the sources of the leak are not employed by NASA.
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0 +1
Nasa just made all its research available online for free
Care to learn more about 400-foot tsunamis on Mars? Now you can, after Nasa announced it is making all its publicly funded research available online for free. Care to learn more about 400-foot tsunamis on Mars? Now you can, after Nasa announced it is making all its publicly funded research available online for free. The space agency has set up a new public web portal called Pubspace, where the public can find Nasa-funded research articles on everything from the chances of life on one of Saturn’s moons to the effects of space station living on the hair follicles of astronauts.
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+47 +1
The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists
Science is in big trouble. Or so we’re told. In the past several years, many scientists have become afflicted with a serious case of doubt — doubt in the very institution of science. As reporters covering medicine, psychology, climate change, and other areas of research, we wanted to understand this epidemic of doubt. So we sent scientists a survey asking this simple question: If you could change one thing about how science works today, what would it be and why?
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0 +1
The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists
These are dark times for science so we asked hundreds of researchers how to fix it. Science is in big trouble. Or so we’re told. In the past several years, many scientists have become afflicted with a serious case of doubt — doubt in the very institution of science. Explore the biggest challenges facing science, and how we can fix them: As reporters covering medicine, psychology, climate change, and other areas of research, we wanted to understand this epidemic of doubt.
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+28 +1
The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists
These are dark times for science so we asked hundreds of researchers how to fix it. By Julia Belluz, Brad Plumer, and Brian Resnick.
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+26 +1
Let’s make peer review scientific
Thirty years on from the first congress on peer review, Drummond Rennie reflects on the improvements brought about by research into the process — and calls for more. By Drummond Rennie.
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