Ep. 774: How Does Bad Science Happen?

Astronomy Cast

Science, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Space

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Astronomy Cast Ep. 774: How Does Bad Science Happen? By Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Streamed live on Nov 8, 2025. Scientific expertise is under attack on all fronts with concerns coming from politicians and the public. While most of this is unwarranted and politically motivated, there can be germ of truth. Bad science does happen, but how? How is it that papers that very few believe still make it through peer review and to publication? Why do professors at prominent universities get quoted saying things that seem to be fiction? In this episode, we consider the case for letting potentially impossible things make it to publication. This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast In this episode, we'd like to thank: Andrew Poelstra, BogieNet, Brian Cagle, Burry Gowen, David, David Rossetter, Ed, Gerhard Schwarzer, Jason Kwong, Jeanette Wink, Michael Purcell, Sergey Manouilov, Siggi Kemmler, Sérgio Sancevero

Transcript

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1:01.0	Thank you. I'm going to be. I'm going to be. I'm sorry. I'm not. Thank you. Astronomycast, Episode 774, How Does Bad Science Happen? Welcome to Astronomycast,
1:57.8	our weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know.
2:02.5	I'm Fraser Kane. I'm the publisher of the universe today with me, as always is Dr. Pamela Gay,
2:06.4	a senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute and the director of Closomen.
2:11.4	Hey, Pamela, how you doing?
2:12.6	I am thinking right now that we need to say that this episode is not how we know what we know,
2:23.5	but it's how what we know gets confused by bad publications.
2:28.2	How we know what we know, how we know when we don't know, how we don't know what we don't know, how we don't know what we don't know, how we don't know what we know.
2:41.8	How noise gets added to the system, basically.
2:44.7	Yeah.
2:45.4	Yeah.
	...

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