Pseudoscience is Defective Science

8/14/2019 Pseudoscience is Defective Science

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Pseudoscience is defectivescience


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Fuzzy Boundaries Between

Science and Pseudoscience Subject matter: Sense and non-sense

There is a continuum between these

extremes not a simple true or false.

Individual: Competence, incompetence,

Insane, one field able, once competent,

Cranks.


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pseudoscience

pseudoscience is an established body ofknowledge which masquerades as science in

an attempt to claim a legitimacy which itwould not otherwise be able to achieve on itsown terms; it is often known as fringe- oralternative science.


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pseudoscience

The most important of its defects is usuallythe lack of the carefully controlled and

thoughtfully interpreted experiments whichprovide the foundation of the natural sciencesand which contribute to their advancement.


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pseudoscience

The term "established body of knowledge" is important here,because the pursuit of scientific knowledge usually involveselements of intuition and guesswork;

experiments do not always test a theory adequately, andexperimental results can be incorrectly interpreted or evenwrong.

In legitimate science, however, these problems tend to be self-correcting, if not by the original researchers themselves, thenthrough the critical scrutiny of the greater scientific community.


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Some other kinds of

defective sciencepathological science

N-rays

Poly-water

Cold fusion

Bowen Technique

Intelligent Design

Acupuncture


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Some other kinds of

defective science junk science

"9944/100% Pure: It Floats"

Ivory Soap is a classic example of junk science fromthe 19th century. Not only is the term "pure"meaningless when applied to an undefined mixture suchas hand soap, but the implication that its ability to float

is evidence of this purity is deceptive. The low density isachieved by beating air bubbles into it, actuallyreducing the "purity" of the product and in a sensecheating the consumer.


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Some other kinds of

defective science bad science

Bad science describes well-intentioned but incorrect, obsolete,incomplete, or over-simplified expositions of scientific ideas. An

example would be the statement that electrons revolve in orbitsaround the atomic nucleus, a picture that was discredited in the1920's, but is so much more vivid and easily grasped than theone that supplanted it that it shows no sign of dying out.


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How can you recognize

pseudoscience? The primary goal of science is to achieve a

more complete and more unified

understanding of the physical world. Pseudo-sciences are more likely to be driven

by ideological, cultural, or commercial goals.


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pseudoscience? Most scientific fields are the subjects of

intense research which result in thecontinual expansion of knowledge in thediscipline.

A pseudo-scientific field evolves verylittle since it was first established. Thesmall amount of research andexperimentation that is carried out isgenerally done more to justify the beliefthan to extend it.


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pseudoscience? Scientists commonly seek out

counterexamples or findings thatappear to be inconsistent with acceptedtheories.

In pseudo-sciences, a challenge to

accepted dogma is often considered ahostile act if not heresy, and leads tobitter disputes or even schisms.


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pseudoscience? In science observations or data that are

not consistent with current scientific

understanding, once shown to becredible, generate intense interestamong scientists and stimulate additionalstudies.

In a pseudoscience observations or datathat are not consistent with establishedbeliefs tend to be ignored or activelysuppressed.


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pseudoscience? Science is a process in which each principle

must be tested in the crucible of experienceand remains subject to being questioned or

rejected at any time.

The major tenets and principles ofpseudoscience are often not falsifiable, andare unlikely ever to be altered or shown to be

wrong.


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Isreal Flying rabbis Fight Swine

Flu with Prayer,and ShoferIsrael - On Monday

morning an Arkia airlines

plane took off from Ben

Gurion Airport carrying

rabbis and Kabbalists and

flew over the country in a

flight aimed at preventing

the swine flu virus fromspreading in Israel through

prayers.


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pseudoscience? Scientific ideas and concepts must stand or fall

on their own merits, based on existing

knowledge and on evidence. Pseudoscientific concepts tend to be shaped by

individual egos and personalities, almostalways by individuals who are not in contactwith mainstream science. They often invokeauthority (a famous name, for example) forsupport.


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CARL SAGAN'S BALONEY DETECTION KIT

Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents

of all points of view.

Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no"authorities").

Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that

caught your fancy.

Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.

Quantify, wherever possible.

If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.

"Ochkam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally

well choose the simpler. Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to

be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can othersduplicate the experiment and get the same result?


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Marks of Pseudoscience or

Bogus Science1. A lack of well-controlled, reproducible experimental support.

(by definition)2. Over reliance on anecdotal evidence.3. Play on supposed inconsistencies in science.4. Attempt to explain the (so far) unexplainable. Appeal to mysteries &

myths.5. Argument by analogy. Argument by spurious similarity.

6. Abuse of well-known scientists by;a. inferring they would agree with them.b. quoting them out of context.

7. Over reliance on surveys and statistical arguments8. Filtering data. The grab-bag approach to data.9. Use of anachronistic arguments. Arguing against long-dead theories.10. Use of irrefutable hypothesis.

11. Refusal to revise in spite of being proven wrong.12. Lack of controlled experiments13. Grab bag approach to gathering evidence.14. Use of irrefutable hypothesis15. Appeals to mysteries and myths


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More marks of Pseudoscience or

Bogus Science Makes Pitch to News Media instead of

bona fide Scientific Journals

Makes claims of suppression

Proposes effect nearly impossible to detect

Evidence to support idea is mostly anecdotal

Works in isolation

Proposes new law of nature to explain discovery


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Examples of Pseudoscience or

Bogus Science Dianetics

Worlds in Collision

Creationism

Astrology

* acupuncture astrology

Bermuda triangle

biorhythms

codependency

creationism and creation science

hollow Earth hypnosis

intelligent design

morphic resonance


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Bad Science Frequently deliberately dishonest

Overlooks facts

Misinterprets

Presents incorrect data

Data Incomplete or absent Many hidden variables

Unreliable or anecdotal data

Exhibits researcher bias

Poor preparation or inadequate education


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Alien thinking

Not many scientists are

prepared to take tales of

alien abduction seriously,

but John Mack, a Harvard

professor who was killed

in a road accident in north

London last year, did. Ten

years on from a row which

nearly lost him his job,

hundreds of people whoclaim they were abducted

still revere him.


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Good or Bad Science

Pylons 'may be a leukemia risk'

The researchers looked at high

voltage power linesLiving too

close to overhead power lines

appears to increase the riskof childhood leukemia,

researchers say. A major study

found children who had lived

within 200 meters of high

voltage lines at birth had a 70%

higher risk of leukemia thanthose 600m or more away.


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Nano-scientist's dark secret One of the most brilliant scientific

researchers of recent years stands accused ofcommitting an elaborate scientific fraud,fooling many eminent experts.

Bell's internal inquiry on Schoen was damning

In 2001, a team led by Hendrik Schoenappeared to have invented the smallestorganic transistor ever made.

Only a single molecule in length, it washailed as a huge breakthrough, capable oftransforming the world of computers.

But, as BBC Two's Horizon program showsthis week, the "breakthrough" led to hisdisgrace and began a cascade of eventsthat would result in one of the mostintriguing science stories of recent years.

When he published his work, Schoen's tinytransistor was regarded as a discoverythat could have blasted open the world ofnanotechnology - where cheap, powerfulcomputers could transform the world inwhich we live.


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Nano-scientist's dark secret

In 2001, a team led by Hendrik Schoen appeared to have invented thesmallest organic transistor ever made.

Only a single molecule in length, it was hailed as a huge breakthrough,capable of transforming the world of computers.

But, as BBC Two's Horizon programme shows this week, the"breakthrough" led to his disgrace and began a cascade of events thatwould result in one of the most intriguing science stories of recent years.

When he published his work, Schoen's tiny transistor was regarded as adiscovery that could have blasted open the world of nanotechnology -where cheap, powerful computers could transform the world in which welive.


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Stuff of legend

Transistors are the minute "switches" that control the flow ofinformation in a computer chip. The more you can fit on to a chip, themore powerful your computer.

Schoen's transistor was far smaller than anything possible on a siliconchip, so it seemed to herald a new age when computer power couldgrow to undreamed of levels.

It was the latest in a long line of great discoveries made by Schoen.He was only in his early 30s and yet had already made advances in

the world of superconductors and lasers.

His name had become so prominent in the scientific journals that tomany of his rivals he had taken on legendary status.


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Growing doubts

What he had apparently achieved was a way of connecting up dye-likemolecules in a transistor circuit. When the circuit was switched on,

they found it had the same characteristics as a silicon transistor.

It was a double breakthrough. Schoen's transistor was not just verysmall, it was made from simple organic molecules.

It promised incredibly cheap computer chips that did not need to bemanufactured in hugely expensive fabrication plants, but insteadcould be custom-built, at a fraction of the cost, in simple laboratories.


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Growing doubts

What he had apparently achieved was a way of connecting up dye-likemolecules in a transistor circuit. When the circuit was switched on,

they found it had the same characteristics as a silicon transistor.

It was a double breakthrough. Schoen's transistor was not just verysmall, it was made from simple organic molecules.

It promised incredibly cheap computer chips that did not need to bemanufactured in hugely expensive fabrication plants, but insteadcould be custom-built, at a fraction of the cost, in simple laboratories.


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doubts

Many of Hendrik Schoen's fantastic claims just could not be repeated inthe lab by rival scientists, and many were getting frustrated. It had gotto the point where there were serious whisperings about his credibility.

Analysis of his papers going back through previous years provided more

evidence of suspicious data.

Schoen's employers, Bell Laboratories, instantly launched anindependent investigation into his conduct and the verdict was damning.

After its findings were released, Bell fired Schoen. Nature, the journal

which had published much of his work, retracted the suspect paperstriggering a huge amount of soul searching in the scientific community.


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Bad Science

Poly-Water and Cold Fusion

Case Histories

li


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Outline

The Russian revolutionFedyakin and Deryagin

Experimental setup

Results

Spreading to the West

Lippincott and Allen

Involvement of the mediaDonahoe article

Polybunking De Water

Rousseau et al


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In the Beginning

Nikolai N. Fedyakin

Kostrama Polytechnical Institute

Found spontaneous water condensation in capillaries

under certain experimental conditions (1962)

Different properties than normal water

Boris V. Deryagin

Surface Forces Laboratory at the Institute of Physical

Chemistry of the Soviet Academy of SciencesTook over research

Perfected experimental technique for production of condensate


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Experimental Setup


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Process and Results

Condensate PropertiesFreezing Interval ~ 243 K to 213 K

Boiling Point ~ 523 K to 573 K

Density 1.4 g/cm

3

Thermal expansion coefficient ~ 1.5 times normal water

S di t th W t


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Ellis R. Lippincott U. of Maryland

Infrared Spectroscopy

Very different from normal water

Taken as evidence of polymeric

structure

Poly-

water

Water

Rousseau 57


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Leland C. Allen First methodical theoretical

investigation

Found feasible structure

cyclometric water Roughly the same internal energy

as normal water

Compatible with high density and

viscosity of polywater

Franks, F., Polywater, p.93

M di I l t


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Media Involvement F. J. Donahoe (1969)

Most Dangerous Material on Earth

Mass-media gets involved

The Number of Publications Per Year

Franks, F., Polywater, p. 120


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Lehigh Conference (1970)

The Showdown between believers and doubters

Nothing much resolved

Lippincott

trouble producing spectra without contaminants

Allen

new calculations cast doubt on polywaterDenis L. Rousseau

introduced theory of organic contaminants

D B ki


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DeBunking Denis Rousseau and Sergio Porto at USC

Use Raman scattering for spectroscopy

Condensate turns to black char Polywater should not do this

Combination of Na, Cl, and SO4

Proponents-contaminants in Rousseaus but not theirsRousseau uses infrared spectroscopy on sweat

Polywater

Sweat

Rousseau 57


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Discussion and Conclusion

Polywater as a Pathologic Science(Langmuir 1953)

People remained divided on the subject fora long time

The epidemic of poly-water was fuelled byintense media coverage


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Too Good ToBe True

The Strange, But True, Story of Cold

Fusion


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The Announcement

March 23, 1989 Salt Lake City

Two scientists have successfully created a sustained

nuclear fusion reaction at room temperature in a chemistrylaboratory at the University of Utah.

The greatest invention

since the discovery of fire.


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Pons and Fleischmann

Dr. Stanley Pons Dr. Martin Fleischman


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A Nuclear Fusion Primer

In nuclear fusion two light nuclei are

combined into a heavier nucleus, releasing

energy. Deuterium, 2H, can be used in D-D fusion to

release approximately 4.00 MeV per fusion.

pn Deuterium


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Two Pathways

D + D p + 3H D + D n + 3He

p n p n

pn

p

n3He

pn

pn

p n

p

n3H


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Energy Of Fusion

In the D + D p + 3H reaction most of the

energy (3 MeV) is carried away by the

proton. In the D + D n + 3He reaction the neutron

carries most of the energy (2.45 MeV).


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Hot Fusion

Because of the electrostatic repulsion between thedeuterium nuclei high temperatures are used to

bring them together to fuse. Magnetically confined plasmas are used to

generate the high temperatures.


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Hot Fusion: Tokomak


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The Cold Fusion Machine

The Cold fusion

machine was a

beaker of heavywater (D2O) with a

couple of electrodes

and a small power

supply.


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The Cold Fusion Experiment

How did they do that?


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The Cold Fusion Cell

The anode is a coil ofplatinum and the cathodea palladium rod.

The cell is filled withheavy water and immersedin a water bath.

LiOD is added to theheavy water as the

electrolyte.


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The Cold Fusion Process

The electric current splits the D2O molecules into D

2gas

and OD ions at the cathode.

The ions migrate to the anode and form D2O and O

2.

Palladium has a great affinity for hydrogen and deuteriumions are absorbed into the cathode up to a density ofthousands of times that of deuterium gas.

The closely packed deuterium nuclei fuse and release heat,

neutrons, protons, etc.


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The Signs of Fusion

Excess Heat*

Neutrons*

Tritium* (?)

3He

Protons


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The P & F Evidence

Heat and Light


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Excess Heat


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Neutrons via Gammas

Some neutrons would

be absorbed by the H

nuclei in the water

releasing a 2.2 MeV

gamma- ray.

P & F looked for these

gammas.


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Gamma-Rays

The gamma-ray peak

as presented in the

first P & F paper

submitted to the

Journal of

Electroanalytical

Chemistry (JEC).


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The ReactionMen, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go

mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one

by one.

-Charles Mackay

Extraordinary Popular Delusions

and the Madness of Crowds,1841


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A Media Explosion

Cold Fusion became a

instant media event.

P & F wereinterviewed on all the

major news networks.

Congress scheduled

hearings on CF.


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Confirmations

Jones, et. al. (BYU Neutrons)

Georgia Tech Neutrons

Texas A & M Excess Heat

Seattle Tritium

Small colleges and independent researchers

Bobs Discount House of Knowledge


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Doubts

Why are they still breathing?

Heat vs. neutron output.

Are the nuclei really any closer? Where are the control runs?

Whats wrong with that peak?

The MIT gang goes to the video replay.


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Gamma-Rays

The gamma-ray peak

as presented in the

first P & F paper

submitted to the

Journal of

Electroanalytical

Chemistry (JEC).

2200


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The Video Peak


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Comparing Peaks


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The APS Meeting

Caltech: Steve Koonin and Nathan Lewis

Questions about the Calorimetry

Closed cell vs. Open cell

Raw data?

A lot of negative results.


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Excess Heat


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Retractions

Georgia Tech Temperature (not Neutrons)

Texas A & M Ungrounded thermistor (not

Excess Heat ) Seattle Remind me how a mass spec

works again. (not Tritium )


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Harwell

Working with advice from Fleischmann theHarwell Nuclear Lab conducted the mostextensive set of cold fusion tests in the world.

Cells were tested in numerous configurations forheat, neutrons, gammas, tritium, and Helium-3.

No evidence for nuclear processes in any of theexperiments.

Sometimes brilliant people have mad ideas J.Williams, Dir. Harwell Lab


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The Utah Physicists

Mike Salamon lead a team of physicists from theUniversity of Utah to make extensive radiationmeasurements in Pons laboratory.

Na(I) detectors searched for Gamma-rays fromneutrons, and protons.

No signal was seen above background after 831hours of measurement.

upper bound of 10 picowatts of energy generatedby any known nuclear process


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What Happened?

And what can we learn?


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Pons & Fleischmann

Was it a fraud?

The rush to announce.

The explosion.

Isolation from peers.

Sometimes brilliant people have mad

ideas.


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The Science Community

Meeting expectations.

The good, the bad and the normal

distribution. Seek simplicity, and distrust it

A. N. Whitehead


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Desktop apparatus yields stream of neutrons

Now Putterman, a physicist at theUniversity of California, LosAngeles, has turned a tiny crystalinto a particle accelerator. When itselectric field is focused by atungsten needle, it fires deuterium

ions into a target so fast that thecolliding nuclei fuse to create astream of neutrons.Putterman is notclaiming to have created a source ofvirtually unlimited energy, becausethe reaction isn't self-sustaining.But until now, achieving any kind offusion in the lab has required bulkyaccelerators with large electricity

supplies. Replacing that with a smallcrystal is revolutionary. "Theamazing thing is that the crystal canbe used as an accelerator withoutplugging it in to a power station,"says Putterman.


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Table-top fusion

'demonstrated' Previous claims for

desktop fusion have

been highly

controversial. A USteam has created a

"pocket-sized"

nuclear fusion reactor

that generates

neutrons, Nature

magazine reports.


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The Bowen TechniqueSome Personal Experiences of What It Is, What It Does,

and What It Doesnt The Bowen Technique addresses the whole body, which responds to

the degree to which it is able. The Technique involves a sequence oflight pressure movements of the practitioner's fingers and thumbsover the skin of the patient, at precise locations. Muscles are"twanged" like the strings of a guitar. The technique involves a basictreatment, with add-ons for particular ailments, including FrozenShoulder, Tennis Elbow, or Strained Hamstrings. The sequence ofmoves is punctuated by intervals, during which time the patient's

body is given time to respond to the moves.

At first Tim Willcocks found he needed the crutch of his notes on the

technique, his "Bowen Bible" and referred to it continually, evenduring treatments. However, at an environmental camp in Slovakia,he had gained enough confidence to work from his own knowledge.

He has been using the Bowen Technique for two and a half years andgives some examples of successful cases, including cases of:

breathing difficulties, Fibromyalgia, lower back pain and frozenshoulder, all of which responded well to between two and fivetreatments.

Tim went to Bosnia with the Healing Hands Network and was able tohelp in relieving the suffering of so many people whose lives had

been damaged by the war. He went to Bosnia full of enthusiasm forBowen and return still with that enthusiasm, but also with the

realisation that Bowen is one ray in a rainbow spectrum of healingmodalities.


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'intelligent design'


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Good Science


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Good Science

Good Science is

Consistent

Parsimonious

Empirically testable

Progressive

Retrogressive

useful


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Some Examples of Good Science

Natural Selection

DNA

Thermodynamics

Quanta

Standard Model of Particle Physics

Cosmology

Relativity


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Agree or Disagree?

When cows fall asleep standing up, it is

easy (and fun!) to sneak up next to them

and tip them over. Birds eating rice thrown at weddings swell

up and die (even burst).

Animals exposed to radioactive wastemutate and turn into other types of animals.


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Agree or Disagree?

Earthworms come up onto the sidewalks afterheavy rain to avoid being drowned in theirunderground tunnels.

People licking toads have hallucinations.

Lennon wrote better music than Tchaikovsky.

Heaven is not in our solar system, but it is

somewhere in the universe.


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Science involves

Using and extending the senses

Observing and collecting

Probing and testing Deductive hypothesis testing

Inductive search for patterns

Building increasingly accurate explanations basedon evidence

M d l d h P i di


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Mendeleev and the Periodic

Table of Chemical Elements

i i i


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Fleming and the serendipitous

discovery of the first antibiotic

G d ll d h illi


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Goodall and the willingness to

break with convention


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The Scientific Method

There is simply no fixed set of steps that

scientists always follow, no one path that

leads them unerringly to scientificknowledge.


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The Scientific Method

1) Question or Problem 2) Hypothesize

3) Predict Consequences 4) Experiment

5) Interpret Experimental Results


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Experiments

An experiment is a test

used to determine if

there is evidence to

support a hypothesis


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What is a hypothesis?

An hypothesis is a guess or prediction

about a phenomenon.

The null hypothesis predicts that therewill be NO difference between

experimental groups.


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What is a theory?

A theory is an explanation that has a very

large amount of evidence to support it.

A fact is an observation about nature. A

theory is an explanation. So a theory can

never become a fact.


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Fact, Hypothesis, Law, Theory

Fact = a stated observation

Hypothesis = a proposition that may be

investigated Law or Principle = a description of

observable phenomena

Theory = an explanation based onextensive evidence


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The Borderlands of Science

Shermer, (2001)

Normal Science

Empirical claims

Vast body of evidence

Borderland Science Empirical work

Growing body of evidence

Pseudoscience

Fake science disguised asnormal science

Lacks evidence


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10 different areas of inquiry:

Acupuncture

Astrology

Big Bang Big Foot

Chiropractic

Heliocentrism

Hypnosis

Neurophysiology of

Brain Function Punctuated Equilibrium

Search forExtraterrestrial

Intelligence (SETI)

h d l d f S i


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The Borderlands of Science

Shermer, (2001)

Heliocentrism, .9

Neurophysiology of Brain Function, .8

Punctuated equilibrium, .7 normal science SETI, Hypnosis, .5

Chiropractic, .4 borderland science

Acupuncture, .3

Astrology, Big Foot, .1 pseudoscience


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A Piece Of The True CrossHow Would One Determine that a

hunk Of Wood was part of the True

Cross, the Cross upon Which Christ

was Crucified ?

Boundary Detection Kit


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Boundary Detection Kit How Reliable is The Source of the claim?

Does the Source make similar claims?

Have the Claims been verified by another Source?

How does this fit with the real world and how it works?

Has Anyone especially the claimant make attempts to

disprove the claim or only attempts to confirm the claim?



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In the absence of clearly define proof , does

the evidence point to the claimants

conclusion or to a different one?

Has the claimant abandoned the rules of

reasoning and the tools of science?

Has claimant offered an alternative

explanation or merely denies the current

explanation?


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Is the claimants explanation as

comprehensive as the currently accepted

explanation?Does bias or beliefs drive the explanation?


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Acupuncture

Pseudo-Science or Not


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Annals of Internal Medicine

A Randomized Clinical Trial of Acupuncture

Compared with Sham Acupuncture in

Fibromyalgia

Nassim P. Assefi, MD; Karen J. Sherman,

PhD; Clemma Jacobsen, MS; Jack Goldberg,PhD; Wayne R. Smith, PhD; and Dedra

Buchwald, MD


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Setting: Private acupuncture offices in the

greater Seattle, Washington, metropolitan

area.

Patients: 100 adults with fibromyalgia.


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Intervention: Twice-weekly treatment for

12 weeks with an acupuncture program that

was specifically designed to treatfibromyalgia, or 1 of 3 sham acupuncture

treatments: acupuncture for an unrelated

condition, needle insertion at nonacupoint

locations, or noninsertive simulated

acupuncture.

A l f I l M di i


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Measurements: The primary outcome was subjective pain

as measured by a 10-cm visual analogue scale ranging

from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain ever). Measurements

were obtained at baseline; 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of

treatment; and 3 and 6 months after completion oftreatment. Participant blinding and adverse effects were

ascertained by self-report. The primary outcomes were

evaluated by pooling the 3 sham-control groups and

comparing them with the group that received acupunctureto treat fibromyalgia.


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Results: The mean subjective pain rating

among patients who received acupuncture

for fibromyalgia did not differ from that inthe pooled sham acupuncture group (mean

between-group difference, 0.5 cm [95% CI,

0.3 cm to 1.2 cm]). Participant blindingwas adequate throughout the trial, and no

serious adverse effects were noted.


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Annals Of Internal Medicine

Limitations: A prescription of acupuncture

at fixed points may differ from acupuncture

administered in clinical settings, in whichtherapy is individualized and often

combined with herbal supplementation and

other adjunctive measures. A usual-care

comparison group was not studied.


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Annals Of Internal Medicine

Conclusion: Acupuncture was no better

than sham acupuncture at relieving pain in

fibromyalgia.

5 July 2005 | Volume 143 Issue 1 | Pages

10-19


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Acupuncture is Not FDA

* In United States, acupuncture

was approved with FDA.

* Health insurance covers TCM

* Theres argument that TCM is

Pseudoscience because it was

not tested for true science


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FDA

FDA Removes Bar to Coverage Of

Acupuncture by Insurance; Needles Are

Classified as Medical DevicesTheWashington Post | March 30, 1996| Rick

Weiss | Copyright


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FDA

The Food and Drug Administration

yesterday classified acupuncture needles as

medical devices for "general use" by trainedprofessionals.The agency did not go so far

as to state that acupuncture is effective for

any particular condition, an outcome many

acupuncturists had hoped for.

Cranks or Psudoscientist


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Cranks do not understand how the scientific

Process works. Cranks claim that theyre misunderstood.

Cranks see themselves like Galileo

Cranks tend to paranoia.

Cranks see themselves as geniuses.

Cranks regard their colleagues as blockheads.

He feels persecuted.

Attacks renowned scientists as Einstein.

Speaks in made up jargon

Why Do Cranks Lack A


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Why Do Cranks Lack A

Knowledge Filter? Lack of training or out of date training

A true believer

Hypothesis seeking evidence instead of evidence

seeking an hypothesis.


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Pseudoscience is Defective Science

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