Posted on 12/18/2013 9:50:32 AM PST by Theoria
A dinosaur hobbyist who made his name as a Microsoft multimillionaire published a scientific paper on Monday alleging serious errors and irregularities in dinosaur research involving some of the worlds top paleontologists.
The research, some of it dating to the 1990s, analyzed skeletons of different ages to estimate how quickly dinosaurs grew. For example, a 2001 paper, published in the journal Nature, estimates that the giant dinosaur Apatosaurus had a growth spurt of 12,000 pounds in a year.
The papers, particularly a 2004 paper in Nature on the growth of Tyrannosaurus Rex, were influential in offering an explanation for why some dinosaurs were much larger than their relatives and slashed decades off the estimated life span of the creatures.
The accuser is Nathan P. Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer at Microsoft who is well known in the worlds of avant-garde cuisine and patent law. The lead author of the papers in question is Gregory M. Erickson, a professor of anatomy and paleobiology at Florida State University.
Dr. Myhrvold s article, published by the journal PLoS One, says Dr. Ericksons papers contain major mistakes, including graphs that do not match the data and curves that do not match the reported equations. And Dr. Myhrvolds revised estimates put the maximum growth rate of Apatosaurus at about a tenth of what Dr. Erickson and his colleagues had reported.
Dr. Erickson declined to be interviewed, but issued an email statement noting that the papers had been the work of teams of scientists and had been peer-reviewed.
Dr. Myhrvolds reinterpretation of our data, although reaching moderately different conclusions on a species by species basis, strongly supports the cardinal conclusions that we reached regarding how dinosaurs grew, the statement said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bleeding patients is still practiced daily at Medical Labs everywhere. It seems to help some.
“Better would be TRUE “peer review”, where a paper gets put on a website, and everybody in the academic community gets a shot at rendering their critiques.”
That’s what publication is you know. Everyone can then read it, comment on it and prove it incorrect.
I was listening to a video of a nuclear scientist who thought he was on the trail of efficient, clean nuclear power. He was lamenting that he could not find scientists who could do the engineering required for his reactor — he said he’d have to go back to the 20’s and 30’s to find them. At another point, he said he wanted to put together a group of scientists and engineers to oversee the program, but the qualified ones were all over seventy. This nuclear scientist has since died of old age.....
We are screwed up, and we don’t know how to fix ourselves. The dumb breed faster and faster, and the brilliant abstain from reproduction. We better embrace some eugenics, or at least eliminate the negative eugenic pathologies in our culture, or there is no hope.
I know some incredibly brilliant people, but they only have we average folks work with. In the old days, there were universities and other social collections made of nothing but brilliant people, who had to compete, and were supported by none but other brilliant people. That was where all the great things were done. The advancements we make now are simply fruit shaken from the tree by the old timers.
The article does say the guy is a physicist. So he should know something about handling data and statistics.
But they aren't doing it to balance the four bodily humors (which, or course, don't exist) - which was the "scientifically established" reason the treatment was almost universally prescribed for hundreds of years.
Wait: a Published Research Finding about Why Most Published Research Findings Are False....?
They were just doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and perhaps to excess.
You are right of course. The simple chalkboard was the canvas for many new discoveries and ideas.
The vast majority of the time it was the wrong thing and generally did more harm than good, often killing the patient. As with George Washington.
“Hobbyist”?
Ph.D.s are wildly over-rated.
I know. I just find it ironic that the first thing the Medicos tend to do with a patient is still to let some blood out.
The accuser is Nathan P. Myhrvold, a former chief technology officer at Microsoft who is well known in the worlds of avant-garde cuisine and patent law. The lead author of the papers in question is Gregory M. Erickson, a professor of anatomy and paleobiology at Florida State University.Thanks SteveH.
You are correct but people use, "Hey, it was peer reviewed!" as a way of saying that the information must therefore be correct.
So?
” former chief technology officer at Microsoft who is well known in the worlds of avant-garde cuisine and patent law”
That’s who I would go to with a dinosaur question.
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