{"id":772,"date":"2020-07-21T08:43:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T08:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=772"},"modified":"2020-08-07T09:23:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T09:23:46","slug":"scientists-dont-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=772","title":{"rendered":"Scientists don’t ‘say’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As anticipation for a Covid-19 vaccine reaches fever pitch, mainstream news media referring to the research using the term \u2018scientists say\u2019 forget a key point about scientists: they don\u2019t speak with a unified voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[An extract from Tim Noakes: The Quiet Maverick<\/span><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game of science has players and, importantly, it has rules. And nature may fight fair, but she\u2019s reluctant to surrender her secrets. She is continually adapting to everything we throw at her, and the resultant complexity of the game means that humans have to be both creative in our strategy and methodical in our tactics, if we are to gain even a foothold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make things even more complex, there is no single strategy for scientists to keep their eye on the ball. Broadly speaking, there are two: one is epistemic, the other practical. These are sometimes referred to as the \u2018pure\u2019 or \u2018applied\u2019 sciences. The first focuses on the more academic pursuit of knowledge for knowledge\u2019s sake, whereas the latter focuses on the application<\/em> of what is learnt to secure solutions to, essentially human, problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my experience, having interviewed scientists across the spectrum of research, those involved in \u2018pure\u2019 research have a tendency to scoff at those in the applied sciences, who in turn dismiss the \u2018purists\u2019 as being out of touch with the demands of the real world. However, the idea that scientific research is more of a spectrum of application makes sense when you realise that if there is something that scientists engaging in both strategies search for, it is the \u2018truth\u2019 about our natural world. For those driven by more epistemic priorities it\u2019s about the integrity<\/em> or purity<\/em> of the knowledge; for those with their eye on technical applications, the success (or failure) of those applications relies on the accuracy<\/em> and replicability<\/em> of that knowledge. Human nutrition is one of those branches of science that benefits from both pure and applied research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that scientific research is more of a spectrum of application makes sense when you realise that if there is something that scientists engaging in both strategies search for, it is the \u2018truth\u2019 about our natural world<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the search for \u2018truth\u2019, science needs to be both methodical and ethical. Unfortunately, both pursuits are marred by profound errors. The broadly speaking \u2018scientific method\u2019 is the methodological foundation for scientific research. It demands observation by a suitably qualified researcher of the natural world, the establishment of a hypothesis, the prediction of an outcome based on the hypothesis, the testing of that hypothesis through rigorous experimentation, and the submission of the outcomes, together with a conclusion for peer review, where every component is checked, and re-checked, and if deemed rigorous enough, is published, where, theoretically it encourages others to replicate the outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If replication with the same outcomes is achieved, then it is considered part of that corpus of knowledge deemed approximate to the \u2018truth\u2019, something termed \u2018scientific consensus\u2019. However, even then there\u2019s a seemingly paradoxical caveat: at any time that considered \u2018truth\u2019 could be overturned by the advancement of the very science that says it is so. Case in point: Newton\u2019s \u2018clockwork theory\u2019, long considered the most accurate understanding of the universe, was upended by Einstein\u2019s theory that space and time are in fact relative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To try to explain the seeming impermanence of scientific knowledge, science speaks of \u2018theories\u2019, but a scientific \u2018theory\u2019 is not just an idea, some kind of thumb-suck wrapped in impressive and inaccessible (to most) mathematical notation. It is the closest we have to the complete understanding of a concept in science, at that time, because all the evidence, usually across multiple disciplines<\/em> within science, gives us the same conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that a scientific theory such as evolution by natural selection as an in-depth explanation of a natural phenomenon (in this case the origins and diversity of all life), is usually embraced by most scientists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having said that, it hasn\u2019t stopped some of the world\u2019s greatest minds including Richard Dawkins in a book called This Idea Must Die<\/span><\/em><\/a>, edited by John Brockman, from presenting their suggestions of theories that they believe are blocking the progress of science. Among them is the scientific method itself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Tim Noakes: The Quiet Maverick<\/em> by Daryl Ilbury, is available online at leading bookstores and on Amazon.com<\/span><\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As anticipation for a Covid-19 vaccine reaches fever pitch, mainstream news media referring to the research using the term \u2018scientists say\u2019 forget a key point about scientists: they don\u2019t speak with a unified voice. [An extract from Tim Noakes: The Quiet Maverick] The game of science has players and, importantly, it has rules. And nature may…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,19,2,21],"tags":[149,29,27,23],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-journalism","category-media","category-science","tag-covid-19","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\nScientists don't 'say' - Daryl Ilbury<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/darylilbury.com\/?p=772\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists don't 'say' - Daryl Ilbury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As anticipation for a Covid-19 vaccine reaches fever pitch, mainstream news media referring to the research using the term \u2018scientists say\u2019 forget a key point about scientists: they don\u2019t speak with a unified voice. 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