Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

"Humans do science, that that means it’s flawed, you know? Maybe they over-hype their findings, sometimes they are biased in their analysis or data collection. He gives several well-known examples—Andrew Wakefield’s MMR paper, or Paolo Macchiarini’s work on transplantation. He reaffirms what science should be about— nullius in verba , take nobody’s word. Which is in fact the Royal Society’s motto. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . He comes up with ways to limit the damage to science, which makes it quite an important book because you want to ensure science is done to the highest possible standard. He talks about the pressure on young scientists to publish, and how that can give rise to fraud—although that’s probably pretty rare, mercifully—and can also give rise to sloppiness. He’s good at describing the problem and then the possible remedies to save science. Yes, the replication crisis. Sadly, some branches of science are worse than others, and psychology is one of them. It looks like perhaps the sample sizes weren’t big enough for statistics to be done properly, as opposed to outright fraud. Usually it’s something like that. But it’s all about the standards within science."