Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud

1. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud By Robert L. Park

2. About the Author: Robert Park • Born in Kansas City, MO in 1931 • Obtained BA and MA at University of Texas Austin • Received Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University • Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park • Former Director of the American Physical Society Intended Audience: • We can infer that it’s for non-scholars, though he doesn’t explicitly say that in the preface. • “I had no interest in writing a scholarly book to be read only by other scholars…” (p. ix)

3. Why did Park write this book? • Decrease in public support of science after the Vietnam War • Few of the major societal problems can be addressed without input from science • People tend to judge science according to whether or not it agrees with what they already believe

4. Categories of Voodoo Science • Junk science • Deliberately designed to fool nonscientists, specifically juries • Pathological science • Results from scientists fooling themselves • Pseudoscience • Practitioners truly believe it; often fills in uncertainties with political/religious convictions • Fraudulent science • Intends to deceive; knowingly deceives, but rarely starts out as fraud

5. Science and the Media • Crucial because media is often our first exposure to an idea • Beware of the “Talking Heads” • Narrative v. Numbers • Information informs beliefs or beliefs inform information?

6. What we already believe • Forcing the outcome • “The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably untrue.” –Mencken • Worldview matters • The Climate Debate: full of gaps that are filled with religious and political views • Where beliefs begin • We make connections prematurely

7. Vitamin O…About $33 per 4oz. bottle

8. From homeopathic treatment to outer space • People want to believe that natural medicine and science will converge • People want to keep the dream of a space station alive, regardless of what’s practical • Politicians v. Scientists • Scientists: advances slowly most if the time and designed to take advantage of what has just been learned • Politicians: want to agree on a future and establish policies that will get us there

9. When things go to Congress • We put money on the impossible • “Pascal’s Wager” • The politicians win with rhetoric

10. Joe Newman and the Energy Machine “Scientists and inventors rarely set out to commit fraud”

11. Some things to take away • We should not accept ideasuncritically or prematurely • We should assume that our worldview might conflict with our results to avoid “filling the gaps” of science • We should not mistake correlation with causation • We should seek advances, not miracles