Pernicious Junk Science

Coach is Right ^ | 4/15/15 | Michael D. Shaw

[Oldpuppymax]

Those of us, of a certain age, remember the post-World War II promise of Science. Splitting the atom would bring us virtually unlimited cheap electrical power; antibiotics and vaccine technology (a la Salk/Sabin) would eliminate the scourge of infectious disease; and elucidation of the structure of DNA would lead to a cancer cure.

But 60-odd years later, we have radioactive waste; terrifying antibiotic resistant pathogens; and despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on cancer research and mapping the human genome, are no closer to that elusive cure. As to DNA, its greatest contribution has been to forensic science, which no one predicted.

This being April, and Autism Awareness month, let’s get further aware. Last week’s piece suggested that today’s “autism” bears little resemblance to the condition described by Leo Kanner, and is most likely a neuro-immune disease, which can be cured in many cases. How revelatory that “incurable” is one of the few precepts that the Autism Mandarins retain from Kanner.

Which brings us to the definition of “junk science,” courtesy of junkscience.com: Faulty scientific data and analysis used to advance special interests and hidden agendas.

In the case of autism, desperate parents seek out expensive and dangerous therapies such as chelation, embark on bizarre diets, and worst of all—despite mountains of evidence to the contrary—avoid childhood vaccinations. Moreover, in some circles, the anti-vax ghouls have achieved a sort of heroic status, presumably because they have had the “courage” to fight Big Pharma and the medical establishment.

Ah, yes. “Grain of truth,” that essential component of all junk science. In this case, anti-vaxers can invoke the celebrated misdeeds of their opponents, even if unrelated to the matter at hand. This strategy applies especially well to the promotion of chemophobia, the most prized weapon in junk science.

The jury...

[knarf]

I want my flying car, my self cleaning home, and that beautiful Harriet looking lady from Mechanics Illustrated in the 50's that would greet me when I came home from work

(She DID provide sex, DIDN'T she ?)

[JimSEA]

You might want to look at cancer survival rates and their progress in the last sixty years. Radioactive waste disposal is a political problem, not a failure of science. Ditto nuclear power plants. Would you want to give up the last sixty years of science and technological advances?

[dhs12345]

Ya. We are were supposed to have a colony on the Moon (2001) and visited Jupiter (2010) by now according to Arthur C. Clarke.

[DoodleDawg]

Splitting the atom would bring us virtually unlimited cheap electrical power; antibiotics and vaccine technology (a la Salk/Sabin) would eliminate the scourge of infectious disease; and elucidation of the structure of DNA would lead to a cancer cure.

But 60-odd years later, we have radioactive waste; terrifying antibiotic resistant pathogens; and despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars on cancer research and mapping the human genome, are no closer to that elusive cure. As to DNA, its greatest contribution has been to forensic science, which no one predicted.

That's what you get for believing everything you read in "Popular Science".

[Robwin]

She DID provide sex, DIDN'T she ?

Yes, Knarf, she did, but sadly for everyone but you.