Wednesday, March 1, 2023

The Premier Fake Science Journal - Vox Popoli

 The “science” published in this journal doesn’t even rise to the coin-flip level of professional peer-reviewed scientific publications:

Research scientists and doctors are always looking for grants. Not only so they have a job for themselves, but often can get funding for a place to live and transportation and if you string enough of them together from some very high end donors, you can live really well. The thing is those big donors all have pet causes, so you have to be able to match yourself with one of their causes and then make sure the big donor sees it. The donor wants to see that you have done the work. You also need to make sure your research fits what the donor wants to see to write the big check. Many times, the donor can be a big business who would like another business to be put out of business. If it can be done with some splashy research, that is scientifically backed and looks plausible, all the better. Then, the one big business can send out press releases talking about why some product is awful and then come in a week later with another press release about where consumers should go to spend their money.

The scientists and doctors need a publication that is willing to publish some really shaky science so the doctors can go to the donors and say look at this. We are published in this magazine that even you know. So, give us a bunch of money. The magazine has been around forever. It started as a magazine that just talked about general easy to digest science stuff for the general public and was sold on newsstands. Over the years, it has become more tailored to the scientific crowd. Most of you know the name of the magazine, especially if you were around when it came out and was sold everywhere. Now, it just takes huge amounts of money from businesses and scientists to publish poorly done research papers that most of the time are inherently flawed, but they make ten times what they ever did when it was just for sale as a regular magazine.

The magazine appears to be Scientific American, which rather like the old chestnut about the Holy Roman Empire, is neither scientific nor American these days. But it could just as easily be describing Popular Science, which is now equally devoid of genuine science. UPDATE: Or Nature, which also appears to be a candidate.

The New Atheists always failed to understand the relationship between religion and science. Not only is there no inherent conflict between religion and science, but increasingly, Christianity is proving to be an absolute requirement for science that can be successfully replicated.

DISCUSS ON SG

https://voxday.net/2023/03/01/the-premier-fake-science-journal/