Ethics in Science and Technology – The Chapman Nanoanalysis Lab (ChaNL)

pathological science

I was recently re-reading the transcript of Irving Langmuir‘s classic Pathological Science lecture from 1953 (download the PDF) and thought I might drop a post on here about it. For most physical scientists, I imagine that the talk is well known. There are extensive websites on the subject, as well as the obligatory Wikipedia page,Continue reading “pathological science”

violating the “codex of science”?

I just finished reading this editorial from Thomas Lüscher, published in European Heart Journal, for which he serves as Editor-In-Chief. For most folks who happen upon my website, the main details of this article may not be of particular interest, as the apparent driver for writing it comes from two recent notable cases of fraud and/orContinue reading “violating the “codex of science”?”

this is science. get it together, people

One week ago, the website Science Fraud ceased operations under mounting legal pressure. The folks over at Retraction Watch have done a nice job of documenting these events here and here. I was also pointed in the direction of this OP/ED by Bill Frezza in Forbes that was published today that makes the case forContinue reading “this is science. get it together, people”

another diversion

I thought I would share a post on climate change that caught my eye: Why Climate Change Denial is Just Hot Air This showed up in Slate today, and is itself just a short writeup on this post: Why Climate Deniers Have No Scientific Credibility – In One Pie Chart

the importance of being self-critical

In laboratory science-based fields, we are accustomed to performing research using the principles of the scientific method. To summarize, we form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, collect data, analyze and interpret the data, and then draw conclusions that may or may not be aligned with the initial hypothesis. We then cycle back with a revisedContinue reading “the importance of being self-critical”

wow…someone would really do this?

Thought I would share the following post from Retraction Watch: Elsevier parasitology journal retracts paper after finding author made up peer reviewer email addresses So, the main point is this: the author apparently submitted the paper and suggested reviewers for the paper, as is required by most (all?) journals these days. However, the editors ofContinue reading “wow…someone would really do this?”