Free Republic

A major investigation into scores of claims made in psychology research journals has delivered a bleak verdict on the state of the science. An international team of experts repeated 100 experiments published in top psychology journals and found that they could reproduce only 36% of original findings. The study, which saw 270 scientists repeat experiments on five continents, was launched by psychologists in the US in response to rising concerns over the reliability of psychology research. “There is no doubt that I would have loved for the effects to be more reproducible,” said Brian Nosek, a professor of psychology who...

UFO blamed for wrecking wind turbine after 65ft-long blade is ripped off An investigation was underway today into how a wind turbine had a 65ft-long blade torn off - after locals claimed UFOs were behind it.... ...at 4am, locals heard a ‘massive bang’ and reported lights in the vicinity of the noise. Mystery: The damaged wind turbine, with one of its blades ripped off, in Conisholme, Lincolnshire By dawn the 290ft-tall turbine was a wreck, with one of its three blades twisted while another was missing. It was later found on the ground nearby.... There were no reports of low-flying...

PEOPLE are to be tortured in laboratories at Oxford University in a US-funded experiment to determine if belief in God is effective in relieving pain. Top neurologists, pharmacologists, anatomists, ethicists and theologians are to examine the scientific basis of religious belief and whether it is anything more than a placebo. Oxford's new Centre for the Science of the Mind is to use imaging systems to find out how religious, spiritual and other belief systems, such as an illogical belief in the innate superiority of men, influence consciousness. Researchers believe the study will provide insights into the war on terrorism. A...

Physicists Matt Young and Taner Edis are the editors of a new volume whose contributors are working scholars in the sciences touched by the newest expression of “creation science”: Intelligent Design (ID) Theory. Why Intelligent Design Fails is a patient assessment of all the scientific claims made in connection with ID. The half dozen science-enabled spokesmen for ID are the indispensable core group of an international neo-creationist big tent. Goals of the American movement are sweeping: they begin with a highly visible, well-funded, nationwide effort to demean evolutionary science in American school (K-12) curricula. ID is offered as a better...

The much-hyped Columbia University prayer study was flawed and suspicious from the start but now has been fatally tainted with fraud. The first-named author doesn't respond to inquiries. The "lead" author said he didn't learn of the study until months after it was completed. And now the mysterious third author, indicted by a federal grand jury, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. All his previous studies must now be questioned. On September 11, 2001, the United States of America was rocked by perhaps the most horrific event in its history. In the horrible and uncertain days following the...