Nails it. Big Science is broken.

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  • #42245
    bnw
    Blocked

    http://theweek.com/articles/618141/big-science-broken

    by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

    This gets into the question of the sociology of science. It’s a familiar bromide that “science advances one funeral at a time.” The greatest scientific pioneers were mavericks and weirdos. Most valuable scientific work is done by youngsters. Older scientists are more likely to be invested, both emotionally and from a career and prestige perspective, in the regnant paradigm, even though the spirit of science is the challenge of regnant paradigms.

    Why, then, is our scientific process so structured as to reward the old and the prestigious? Government funding bodies and peer review bodies are inevitably staffed by the most hallowed (read: out of touch) practitioners in the field. The tenure process ensures that in order to further their careers, the youngest scientists in a given department must kowtow to their elders’ theories or run a significant professional risk. Peer review isn’t any good at keeping flawed studies out of major papers, but it can be deadly efficient at silencing heretical views.

    All of this suggests that the current system isn’t just showing cracks, but is actually broken, and in need of major reform. There is very good reason to believe that much scientific research published today is false, there is no good way to sort the wheat from the chaff, and, most importantly, that the way the system is designed ensures that this will continue being the case.

    This is a big problem, one that can’t be solved with a column. But the first step is admitting you have a problem.

    Science, at heart an enterprise for mavericks, has become an enterprise for careerists. It’s time to flip the career track for science on its head. Instead of waiting until someone’s best years are behind her to award her academic freedom and prestige, abolish the PhD and grant fellowships to the best 22-year-olds, giving them the biggest budgets and the most freedoms for the first five or 10 years of their careers. Then, with only few exceptions, shift them away from research to teaching or some other harmless activity. Only then can we begin to fix Big Science.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42384
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well, ironically, i don’t see any ‘evidence’ to back
    up any of those claims. Where is the actual evidence
    to back up those claims?

    w
    v

    #42386
    bnw
    Blocked

    Well, ironically, i don’t see any ‘evidence’ to back
    up any of those claims. Where is the actual evidence
    to back up those claims?

    w
    v

    I only posted the opinion portion of his column. The first part that set the stage for his opinion I did not post. Sorry about that. If you didn’t read it he gave examples leading up to his opinion piece.

    In my opinion Gobry nailed it. Self interest whether from money or politics has corrupted science. We see examples of it all the time. Two of the most recent are the DeNiro film pulled from the Tribeca Film festival in which a government scientists participated in the destruction of data concerning vaccine safety to publish a fraudulent narrative. The data showed the multiple vaccine shot MMR (Measels, Mumps, Rubella) caused unquestionable harm to boys and negroes ranging from a lowering of IQ scores to severe physical disability. One scientist involved kept his copy of the data and documents and went public. Another example is a study from 50 years ago involving thousands of people in mental institutions and nursing homes placed on restrictive diets to see the effects of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil. The study was of the gold standard variety due to the huge number of participants and the restrictive nature of their meals and the duration of the study being 5 years. The study was to prove the health benefits of vegetable oil and was undertaken by a friend and colleague of the saturated fat is bad for you guru Ancel Keys. What became quite apparent was the vegetable oil diet increased the death rate of the participants from causes other than heart disease and significantly overall compared to those not on a diet using vegetable oil. Since the data was irrefutable the study was purged and only became known due to the son of the lead researcher combing through the contents of his deceased fathers home to find the data in a dusty box in the basement. The study concluded in the early ’70s as the saturated fat is bad for you fad began to be saturated throughout our culture.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by bnw.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42401
    PA Ram
    Participant

    No offense bnw, but this is just another “think tank” guy promoting an agenda. In this case he works for “Ethic and Public Policy Center” which was founded by a minister and has been funded by some corporations(in this case Nestle)–the same way that the Kochs fund The Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation. They are tax write-offs masquerading as “charities” to push political agendas.

    I don’t pay them much attention.

    If you follow the thread of money in these cases you can usually find where the real interests are. They work primarily for political or corporate interests.

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

    #42402
    bnw
    Blocked

    No offense bnw, but this is just another “think tank” guy promoting an agenda. In this case he works for “Ethic and Public Policy Center” which was founded by a minister and has been funded by some corporations(in this case Nestle)–the same way that the Kochs fund The Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation. They are tax write-offs masquerading as “charities” to push political agendas.

    I don’t pay them much attention.

    If you follow the thread of money in these cases you can usually find where the real interests are. They work primarily for political or corporate interests.

    No offense taken. He may have an agenda. I don’t. I know what I’ve witnessed and I know history. Take the two examples of studies I mentioned. No agenda there just fact. What the layman doesn’t understand is that science is the pursuit of knowledge. That pursuit should not have any bias toward a particular outcome. A study tests a hypothesis and nothing more. When irrefutable information is obtained the scientific method works until proven otherwise. That information may be unfortunate for the sponsors of the study but in the two examples I gave still very much in the public’s interest yet was denied to the public for decades. We can only guess at what human cost.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by bnw.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42459
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well its an interesting subject, for sure: “big science”

    What factors influence ‘science’ and what factors might
    cause scientific-conclusions to be wrong ? Its a big subject.

    w
    v

    #42468
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Well its an interesting subject, for sure: “big science”

    What factors influence ‘science’ and what factors might
    cause scientific-conclusions to be wrong ? Its a big subject.

    w
    v

    Science is a method. In fact it’s a long series of different ways of applying method to different objects of inquiry.

    Scientists are almost invariably the first to discover whether or not this or that claim holds up. So they are the first to say what causes a previous scientific conclusion to be wrong. Doing that—ie. testing the validity of previous scientific claims–is fundamentally core to what science does.

    That’s because science, unlike a creed or faith, isn’t unitary. It consists of endless trained people whose entire purpose is to disprove claims that do not hold up and replace them with ones that presumably work better (in which case others poke, prod, test, and scrutinize the new claim.)

    Usually, to me, the people talking about “science” as this “thing” that “acts a certain way” are not being very scientific. It’s more like they’re talking about something they made up in their heads than the actual operations and practices of actual scientists.

    To me there’s just absolutely no such thing as “Big Science.” That’s just this made up thing. There is, however, thousands upon thousands of people doing things as diverse as studying dog cognition and calculating how to use the theory of relatively so that the time in satellites can be aligned with the time on the surface of the planet (otherwise GPSs don’t work). And obviously much, much more.


    #42469
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Well its an interesting subject, for sure: “big science”

    What factors influence ‘science’ and what factors might
    cause scientific-conclusions to be wrong ? Its a big subject.

    w
    v

    Science is a method.

    Scientists are almost invariably the first to discover whether or not this or that claim holds up.

    That’s because science, unlike a creed or faith, isn’t unitary. It consists of endless trained people whose entire purpose is to disprove claims that do no work and replace them with ones that work better.

    Usually, to me, the people talking about “science” as this “thing” that “acts a certain way” are not being very scientific. It’s more like they’re talking about something they made up in their heads than the actual operations and practices of actual scientists.

    Ok, that’s your view 🙂

    My own view is lots of things have influenced ‘science’ over
    the centuries. Politics, money, power, culture, religion, etc, etc, etc.

    Those things still influence it. So those things and their influences bear watching.

    I mean, in a vacuum science is a ‘method’ but in the real world its
    influenced by all the usual human crap. I doubt you would disagree with that.

    Having said that, of all the ‘methods’ humans have going
    today, ‘science’ seems to be the best, in general.
    Science gave us the internet, toasters,
    and electric football.

    w
    v

    #42470
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    My own view is lots of things have influenced ‘science’ over
    the centuries. Politics, money, power, culture, religion, etc, etc,

    Well, but see, I think and say the exact same thing all the time.

    But what that means is that someone makes this claim that is influenced by say culture and then sooner or later someone comes along and pokes a hole in it. For example, genetic scientists who study the concept of race demonstrate endlessly that 19th century scientific concepts of race have no viable foundation.

    Yes many scienTISTS have blind spots, biases, cultural prejudices, religious convictions, and so on. But then (again) sooner or later some others also trained as scientists come along and expose the limitations in those biased ideas. And then THEIR claims undergo the same kind of scrutiny.

    Heck it wasn’t until all of human history up to 1929 that anyone knew how the sun produced light and heat. Up till then no idea held up.

    So it’s a process. A constantly ongoing one.

    I mean if you call all of science taken together one thing, that would probably best be something like a long process of self-correcting, self-modifying debate.

    #42471
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Peer review isn’t any good at keeping flawed studies out of major papers, but it can be deadly efficient at silencing heretical views.

    That, for example, is complete and utter BS.

    Virtually every view we currently accept as consensus on this or that scientific subject once existed as scientific heresy.

    And of course flawed studies make it into print…because they make a case that later turns out, cannot hold up.

    For example, 30 years ago, anyone who dismissed the idea that black holes are real was flawed, and since then, more and more studies not only reveal their existence but actually study their behavior…to the degree that’s possible with the current technology.

    The vast majority of scientific ideas that we know from the late 20th century began as maverick views that only slowly gathered support. And, all of it is STILL undergoing the process of refinement, replacement, scrutiny, and so on.

    Honestly, there’s no Big Science Cookie Monster ready to be slain. It’s just this long, long process involving thousands upon thousands of different-minded people.

    The only problem I see here is pretending like there IS some Cookie Monster Big Science Thing. Well, no there isn’t. Not even remotely. It just does not reduce to something that simple.

    ….

    #42476
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    My own view is lots of things have influenced ‘science’ over
    the centuries. Politics, money, power, culture, religion, etc, etc,

    Well, but see, I think and say the exact same thing all the time.

    But what that means is that someone makes this claim that is influenced by say culture and then sooner or later someone comes along and pokes a hole in it. For example, genetic scientists who study the concept of race demonstrate endlessly that 19th century scientific concepts of race have no viable foundation.

    Yes many scienTISTS have blind spots, biases, cultural prejudices, religious convictions, and so on. But then (again) sooner or later some others also trained as scientists come along and expose the limitations in those biased ideas. And then THEIR claims undergo the same kind of scrutiny.

    Heck it wasn’t until all of human history up to 1929 that anyone knew how the sun produced light and heat. Up till then no idea held up.

    So it’s a process. A constantly ongoing one.

    I mean if you call all of science taken together one thing, that would probably best be something like a long process of self-correcting, self-modifying debate.

    Yeah, we agree on all this. Though, i think you trust the ‘peer review’ thing a little more than i do. I dont have any first-hand experience with it, btw, fwiw. I dont ‘distrust’ it, but you always point to it with an enthusiasm I dont have. I’m a little more wary of it.
    Dunno why.

    w
    v

    #42477
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Dunno why.

    I’m sorry but as put that’s simply not publishable.

    Consider adding a car chase, or a duel to the death between implacable foes stuck together on an iceberg.

    ..

    #42491
    bnw
    Blocked

    Peer review isn’t any good at keeping flawed studies out of major papers, but it can be deadly efficient at silencing heretical views.

    That, for example, is complete and utter BS.

    Virtually every view we currently accept as consensus on this or that scientific subject once existed as scientific heresy.

    And of course flawed studies make it into print…because they make a case that later turns out, cannot hold up.

    For example, 30 years ago, anyone who dismissed the idea that black holes are real was flawed, and since then, more and more studies not only reveal their existence but actually study their behavior…to the degree that’s possible with the current technology.

    The vast majority of scientific ideas that we know from the late 20th century began as maverick views that only slowly gathered support. And, all of it is STILL undergoing the process of refinement, replacement, scrutiny, and so on.

    Honestly, there’s no Big Science Cookie Monster ready to be slain. It’s just this long, long process involving thousands upon thousands of different-minded people.

    The only problem I see here is pretending like there IS some Cookie Monster Big Science Thing. Well, no there isn’t. Not even remotely. It just does not reduce to something that simple.

    ….

    Well its not “complete and utter BS” as demonstrated in the column. You completely miss the point. There are flawed studies that only become published because peer review failed. Thats because enough reviewers didn’t do their job. They failed professionally and ethically. Scientific heresy has nothing to do with it. A simple review of the methodology or the equations used in projecting data is enough to call into question such studies.

    I’d also hold off on so called proof of black holes. That area of science is the wild west of hypotheses and so called proofs. Until a black hole is visited by more than light or radio waves I wouldn’t wager anything on their existence other than sci-fi scripts.

    I also think you miss the meaning of Big Science. Science can be pursued by anyone. Obtain a level of understanding in a particular area then follow the scientific method. Information learned from such study can be valid. A well known example is the Birdman of Alcatraz. I would term such efforts by laymen as Small Science. Outside of the reach of the gatekeepers at universities and professional societies and professional certifications. I would call those gatekeepers Big Science. The gatekeepers demand a relatively high degree of uniformity in curriculum, terminology, time and belief. Conformity in belief is not much of an issue in undergraduate studies but can be quite important in getting accepted to and graduating from graduate school. Add big money entering the department from studies performed for private and public sponsors and conformity in belief can be deadly efficient in silencing differing views.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42551
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Well its not “complete and utter BS” as demonstrated in the column. You completely miss the point. There are flawed studies that only become published because peer review failed.

    Well actually, I did get the point. And it’s simple…there are flawed studies because there always are, as part of the process of scientific discussion. Everything for example said about the “steady state” theory of the universe before the big bang theory emerged was more than flawed, it was dead wrong—at least in this sense: in the end “steady state” theory could not account for the wide range of evidence that kept coming in, while its rival views did do so much more successfully. Science is a discussion, not a series of simple truths.

    There are always some flawed studies because there are always competing views testing and pushing the consensus, and as time goes on, some work and some don’t.

    The idea that there’s this universal simple unitary thing called Big Science and that it is ALL called into question is, frankly, absurd. Paleontologists in China owe nothing because a geographer in Chile made a claim in print that did not hold up.

    It always was and always will be a long discussion with people correcting each other, disagreeing, bringing in new information and viewpoints, challenging old assumptions, making claims that can be dated within months and then trying over.

    That just means it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

    And this strange idea you have that there’s this “conformity of belief” among scientists all over the world just tells me you probably don’t know any scientists. It’s just the kind of fiction a funded article like that would come up with. I do know scientists, I was raised by them and have always had scientists among my family, friends and colleagues (including my daughter). It always looks different when you actually know the thing. Science is one big noisy, multi-faceted ongoing argument. I have seen that process at work my whole life. The “they’re all the same” routines, it seems to me, comes from motivated outsiders with agendas. It’s not a real picture of actual science.

    #42575
    bnw
    Blocked

    Well actually, I did get the point. And it’s simple…there are flawed studies because there always are, as part of the process of scientific discussion. Everything for example said about the “steady state” theory of the universe before the big bang theory emerged was more than flawed, it was dead wrong—at least in this sense: in the end “steady state” theory could not account for the wide range of evidence that kept coming in, while its rival views did do so much more successfully. Science is a discussion, not a series of simple truths.

    There are always some flawed studies because there are always competing views testing and pushing the consensus, and as time goes on, some work and some don’t.

    The idea that there’s this universal simple unitary thing called Big Science and that it is ALL called into question is, frankly, absurd. Paleontologists in China owe nothing because a geographer in Chile made a claim in print that did not hold up.

    It always was and always will be a long discussion with people correcting each other, disagreeing, bringing in new information and viewpoints, challenging old assumptions, making claims that can be dated within months and then trying over.

    That just means it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

    And this strange idea you have that there’s this “conformity of belief” among scientists all over the world just tells me you probably don’t know any scientists. It’s just the kind of fiction a funded article like that would come up with. I do know scientists, I was raised by them and have always had scientists among my family, friends and colleagues (including my daughter). It always looks different when you actually know the thing. Science is one big noisy, multi-faceted ongoing argument. I have seen that process at work my whole life. The “they’re all the same” routines, it seems to me, comes from motivated outsiders with agendas. It’s not a real picture of actual science.

    No you did not get the point. I specifically mentioned methodology and equations used in projecting data. That has nothing to do with scientific heresy nor a hypothesis proved wrong. It is completely within the mechanics involved in the study that corrupts the data thus corrupts the conclusions regarding the study. I can’t possibly elaborate more than that about this. You either understand or you don’t. If you don’t then I’ve failed in explaining it and will leave it to someone else.

    As for Big Science I know it. I’m a part of it. I’ve trained and worked within it. The word science like engineering has been thrown around quite liberally. I’m referring to classically trained scientists. In my case the physical sciences. There are the gatekeepers I mentioned. That is irrefutable. A certified professional in I believe all 50 states is now limited to those who have the Big Science stamp of approval to merely begin the process of certification. It used to be one could claim work in an area over a period of years and get grandfathered in but not now.

    You are also mistaken about conformity of belief. The student wishing to attend a graduate program that has professors involved in accepting grants that further the claims of man made global warming will not get past the interview process when the student does not believe in man made global warming. That is conformity of belief in action. In my case nearly 30 years ago such an example would be a student who believes in the Abiotic Oil Theory trying to get into any graduate program in petroleum exploration in the western world. Even today the ‘fossil’ fuel proponents are universally placed and remain well entrenched throughout the western world.

    • This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by bnw.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42646
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Shit Academics Say ‏@AcademicsSay

    Active voice: I loved your book

    Passive voice: Your book was loved

    Passive-aggressive voice: I love how you felt the need to write a book

    Relationship goals: Acceptance, with minor revisions

    How to find manuscript typos:
    1. Click submit

    Optimist: It gets better
    Realist: It could be worse
    Academic: It depends

    If you can’t say anything nice.¹

    ¹ Say it in a footnote.

    I don’t know why it’s not showing. Yes, I reconnected the adapter. Can someone make sure the projector is on. What does this button do.

    I don’t always get emotional. But when I do, I call it affect.

    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, statistically significant.

    Optimist: Glass half full
    Pessimist: Glass half empty
    Grad student: I see you found my tears

    Reviewer 2 walks into a bar complaining immediately of this not being the joke they would have written.

    I like my academic writing like I like my coffee: intentionally obfuscatory so as to propagate an inflationary in-crowd publishing oligarchy

    Monday. An unfortunate byproduct of the social construction of time.

    I like my similes like I like my coffee: utilizing tenuous equivalencies for the sake of humor and/or irony.

    Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to use gender-neutral pronouns and he’ll feel uncomfortable with many common proverbs.

    What doesn’t bore you, makes you a scholar.

    “Roses are red
    I’m Reviewer 2
    I’ve accepted your paper
    Just kidding, f— you.”

    Things I love: lists, the Oxford Comma and irony

    You don’t bring an anecdote to a data fight.

    Sorry I’m late. I was overexplaining a personally important yet irrelevant point in an unscheduled conversation and would do it again.

    Twitter: I’m writing a book
    Facebook: I finished my book
    Amazon: Pls buy my book
    LinkedIn: I once wrote a book
    Twitter: Don’t write a book

    The definition of irony: not knowing the difference between a definition and an example.

    To err is human. To err repeatedly is research.

    #42651
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Shit Academics Say ‏@AcademicsSay

    Active voice: I loved your book

    Passive voice: Your book was loved

    Passive-aggressive voice: I love how you felt the need to write a book

    Relationship goals: Acceptance, with minor revisions

    How to find manuscript typos:
    1. Click submit

    Optimist: It gets better
    Realist: It could be worse
    Academic: It depends

    If you can’t say anything nice.¹

    ¹ Say it in a footnote.

    I don’t know why it’s not showing. Yes, I reconnected the adapter. Can someone make sure the projector is on. What does this button do.

    I don’t always get emotional. But when I do, I call it affect.

    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, statistically significant.

    Optimist: Glass half full
    Pessimist: Glass half empty
    Grad student: I see you found my tears

    Reviewer 2 walks into a bar complaining immediately of this not being the joke they would have written.

    I like my academic writing like I like my coffee: intentionally obfuscatory so as to propagate an inflationary in-crowd publishing oligarchy

    Monday. An unfortunate byproduct of the social construction of time.

    I like my similes like I like my coffee: utilizing tenuous equivalencies for the sake of humor and/or irony.

    Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to use gender-neutral pronouns and he’ll feel uncomfortable with many common proverbs.

    What doesn’t bore you, makes you a scholar.

    “Roses are red
    I’m Reviewer 2
    I’ve accepted your paper
    Just kidding, f— you.”

    Things I love: lists, the Oxford Comma and irony

    You don’t bring an anecdote to a data fight.

    Sorry I’m late. I was overexplaining a personally important yet irrelevant point in an unscheduled conversation and would do it again.

    Twitter: I’m writing a book
    Facebook: I finished my book
    Amazon: Pls buy my book
    LinkedIn: I once wrote a book
    Twitter: Don’t write a book

    The definition of irony: not knowing the difference between a definition and an example.

    To err is human. To err repeatedly is research.

    ———————————

    Some of those are pretty funny.

    w
    v

    #42717
    Ozoneranger
    Participant

    Well, ironically, i don’t see any ‘evidence’ to back
    up any of those claims. Where is the actual evidence
    to back up those claims?

    w
    v

    I only posted the opinion portion of his column. The first part that set the stage for his opinion I did not post. Sorry about that. If you didn’t read it he gave examples leading up to his opinion piece.

    In my opinion Gobry nailed it. Self interest whether from money or politics has corrupted science. We see examples of it all the time. Two of the most recent are the DeNiro film pulled from the Tribeca Film festival in which a government scientists participated in the destruction of data concerning vaccine safety to publish a fraudulent narrative. The data showed the multiple vaccine shot MMR (Measels, Mumps, Rubella) caused unquestionable harm to boys and negroes ranging from a lowering of IQ scores to severe physical disability. One scientist involved kept his copy of the data and documents and went public. Another example is a study from 50 years ago involving thousands of people in mental institutions and nursing homes placed on restrictive diets to see the effects of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil. The study was of the gold standard variety due to the huge number of participants and the restrictive nature of their meals and the duration of the study being 5 years. The study was to prove the health benefits of vegetable oil and was undertaken by a friend and colleague of the saturated fat is bad for you guru Ancel Keys. What became quite apparent was the vegetable oil diet increased the death rate of the participants from causes other than heart disease and significantly overall compared to those not on a diet using vegetable oil. Since the data was irrefutable the study was purged and only became known due to the son of the lead researcher combing through the contents of his deceased fathers home to find the data in a dusty box in the basement. The study concluded in the early ’70s as the saturated fat is bad for you fad began to be saturated throughout our culture.

    BNW…You referred to “Vaxxed”. Are you saying the message in the film has validity?

    #42736
    bnw
    Blocked

    Well, ironically, i don’t see any ‘evidence’ to back
    up any of those claims. Where is the actual evidence
    to back up those claims?

    w
    v

    I only posted the opinion portion of his column. The first part that set the stage for his opinion I did not post. Sorry about that. If you didn’t read it he gave examples leading up to his opinion piece.

    In my opinion Gobry nailed it. Self interest whether from money or politics has corrupted science. We see examples of it all the time. Two of the most recent are the DeNiro film pulled from the Tribeca Film festival in which a government scientists participated in the destruction of data concerning vaccine safety to publish a fraudulent narrative. The data showed the multiple vaccine shot MMR (Measels, Mumps, Rubella) caused unquestionable harm to boys and negroes ranging from a lowering of IQ scores to severe physical disability. One scientist involved kept his copy of the data and documents and went public. Another example is a study from 50 years ago involving thousands of people in mental institutions and nursing homes placed on restrictive diets to see the effects of replacing saturated fat with vegetable oil. The study was of the gold standard variety due to the huge number of participants and the restrictive nature of their meals and the duration of the study being 5 years. The study was to prove the health benefits of vegetable oil and was undertaken by a friend and colleague of the saturated fat is bad for you guru Ancel Keys. What became quite apparent was the vegetable oil diet increased the death rate of the participants from causes other than heart disease and significantly overall compared to those not on a diet using vegetable oil. Since the data was irrefutable the study was purged and only became known due to the son of the lead researcher combing through the contents of his deceased fathers home to find the data in a dusty box in the basement. The study concluded in the early ’70s as the saturated fat is bad for you fad began to be saturated throughout our culture.

    BNW…You referred to “Vaxxed”. Are you saying the message in the film has validity?

    I have not seen the film but I’ve known of the accusations by the CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson for quite some time.

    From the Vaxxed site, http://vaxxedthemovie.com-

    Synopsis – In 2013, biologist Dr. Brian Hooker received a call from a Senior Scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who led the agency’s 2004 study on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and its link to autism.

    The scientist, Dr. William Thompson, confessed that the CDC had omitted crucial data in their final report that revealed a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. Over several months, Dr. Hooker records the phone calls made to him by Dr. Thompson who provides the confidential data destroyed by his colleagues at the CDC.

    Dr. Hooker enlists the help of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British gastroenterologist falsely accused of starting the anti-vax movement when he first reported in 1998 that the MMR vaccine may cause autism. In his ongoing effort to advocate for children’s health, Wakefield directs this documentary examining the evidence behind an appalling cover-up committed by the government agency charged with protecting the health of American citizens.

    Interviews with pharmaceutical insiders, doctors, politicians, and parents of vaccine-injured children reveal an alarming deception that has contributed to the skyrocketing increase of autism and potentially the most catastrophic epidemic of our lifetime.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #42746
    Ozoneranger
    Participant

    Dude…this film was produced by Andrew Wakefield…a disgraced MD from the UK who falsified data in a paper (later retracted) linking MMR with Autism for personal gain. It’s easy to research. He’s making money off desperate parents. The man is despicable.

    If you’re on that side…I won’t even go further.

    #42754
    bnw
    Blocked

    Dude…this film was produced by Andrew Wakefield…a disgraced MD from the UK who falsified data in a paper (later retracted) linking MMR with Autism for personal gain. It’s easy to research. He’s making money off desperate parents. The man is despicable.

    If you’re on that side…I won’t even go further.

    I don’t have a side. Either Dr. Thompson is telling the truth about the falsified CDC study or he isn’t. If he is telling the truth then the motives for the cover up and the disregard for public safety becomes the issue not Dr. Wakefield.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

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