Skeptic Check: Science Blunders

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2013

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ve all had an “oops” moment. Scientists are no exception. Sometimes science stumbles in the steady march of progress. Find out why cold fusion is a premier example why you shouldn’t hold a press conference before publishing your results. Also, how to separate fumbles from faux-science from fraud. Plus, why ignorance is what really drives the scientific method. And our Hollywood skeptic poses as a psychic for Dr. Phil, while our Dr. Phil (Plait) investigates the authenticity of a life-bearing meteorite. Guests: Phil Plait – Skeptic and author of Slate Magazine’s blog Bad Astronomy Michael Gordin – Historian of science at Princeton University, author of The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe David Goodstein – Physicist, California Institute of Technology Stuart Firestein – Neuroscientist, chair of the biology department, Columbia University, and author of Ignorance: How It Drives Science Jim Underdown – Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles Descripción en español First released January 28, 2013. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
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0:19.8	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding sound science,
0:23.3	Evolution Edition. Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy
0:29.4	a century and a half after Charles Darwin. Join us as we meet the passionate researchers
0:35.3	and communicators who are expanding our knowledge and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics.
0:42.8	Subscribe to Safeguarding Sound Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen.
0:49.3	The scientific method has given us germ theory, the understanding of the atom, a model for photosynthesis, as well as unlocking the secrets of how stars work.
0:58.4	And without germ theory, we wouldn't be able to explain the origins of the cold that you have right now.
1:03.0	Well, I guess it was germs.
1:04.8	Anyhow, this is all the result of theory, experiment, trial, and error.
1:08.7	But sometimes things get stuck on error.
1:12.4	Darn!
1:16.2	It's always hard for a story of science to sit back and say this was a blunder
1:19.6	because many things that seemed perfectly like a good idea at the time
1:23.6	now seem like a lot of blunders.
1:26.0	I'm Molly Bentley.
1:26.8	This is our monthly look at critical thinking from big picture science.
1:29.9	Skeptic Check. I'm Seth Shostak. And we'll take a look at scientific blunders in this program.
1:34.8	Remember cold fusion? Also, how to tell fumbles from faux science from fraud.
	...

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