Top 10 in pseudoscience for 2013
The Scientific garbage of 2013: the worst of the worst
The material was prepared by the editors of InoSMI specifically for the RIA Nauka sectionThe year 2013 is nearing completion, and the publication RealClearScience has made a selection of the main scientific anti–stories of the year - stories that caused irritation and disgust (The Biggest Junk Science of 2013: The Worst of the Worst).
So, get ready. There will be a lot of nasty things. The countdown has started.
#10. The vaccine can make you a homosexualIn March of this year, 70-year-old Italian scientist Gian Paolo Vanoli made a ridiculous statement that vaccines cause homosexuality.
Here are his "impeccable" arguments in the Huffington Post translation, which he outlined to Vice:
"The vaccine is administered to a child, the child grows up and strives to find himself as a person. But if mercury or other substances contained in the vaccine entering the brain prevent this, then the child becomes a homosexual."
Vanoli's logic is sharply at odds with the facts. The vaccine has no effect at all on sexual orientation. According to the American Association of Psychologists, there is no consensus on what exactly determines a person's sexual orientation. "Many people believe that nature and upbringing play an important and complex role here. Most people don't have any doubts about their sexual orientation at all."
The vaccine has not turned anyone gay, but it has prevented 100 million cases of infectious diseases among children since 1924.
No. 9. How Time magazine cured cancerTime magazine on the cover of its April 1 issue posted a scathing headline, similar to the light of a guiding star – "HOW TO CURE CANCER."
The magazine's method turned out to be simple: treat the disease as if it were a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. The article itself, written by Bill Saporito, is full of charming episodes and crude statistics, but there are very few scientific calculations there.
In his article, Saporito cited the words of people who spoke optimistically about cancer treatment, but at the same time told him how difficult it would be.
"He mentions one study in which scientists doubled the two-year survival rate in patients with pancreatic cancer – up to 9 percent. But how did Saporito deduce from this his headline placed on the cover and indicating that this "dream team" knows how to cure cancer?", Paul Raeburn expressed his critical remark.
Seth Mnookin (Seth Mnookin) on the pages of Slate spoke about the article and its title even more sarcastically.
"This is a complete, absolute and indisputable lie. The 580,000 Americans who will die of cancer this year are all too aware of this reality."
No.8. PETA claims that chicken wings reduce the size of a child's penisIn August, the organization "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals" (PETA) issued an ominous warning, addressing it to all expectant mothers:
"Recent scientific evidence indicates that the sons of pregnant women who eat chicken meat are more likely to get a small penis due to chemicals found in poultry meat."
It sounded very intimidating, and the editorial board of the women's magazine Women's Health decided to carefully study the statement "People for the ethical treatment of animals." What she found was not at all scary for the bird eaters.
The "data" given by RETA does not even concern the consumption of chicken meat, but a substance called phthalate. Scientists from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine found out that if an expectant mother uses this substance, then the boy in her womb will have less testosterone. In small quantities, phthalates are used in vinyl coatings, in binders, in detergents, in liquid lubricants, in automotive plastics, in plastic clothing (raincoats), as well as in personal hygiene products. I must say that there is very, very little phthalate in chicken.
"I think there is practically no connection between eating chicken wings–even by pregnant women–and the size of their future sons' genitals," lead researcher Shanna H. Swan told Women's Health.
No. 7. How a chiropractor broke a child's neckLast year, a married couple from Australia took their four–month-old baby to a chiropractor to cure him of torticollis, a disease expressed by an inclined position of the head with its rotation in the opposite direction.
But instead of curing the child, this executioner broke his upper vertebra.
The Sydney Morning Herald told about this story in the fall. She also reported on the investigation conducted by the Society of Chiropractors of Australia. Naturally, it did not reveal any violations and "punished" the chiropractor with an additional course of training in pediatric chiropractic. Demonstrating a complete lack of care for the child, Australian chiropractors made a fog and denied everything.
However, conscientious chiropractors cannot deny the fact that pediatric chiropractic has almost no scientific basis and is most likely absolutely ineffective.
No. 6. The scientist mathematically proved that same—sex marriage is wrongThis year, Chibuihem Amalaha with the help of magnets "proved" that same—sex marriage is wrong.
Its logic is something like this: the north and south poles of the magnet are attracted to each other, and the same poles are repelled. And this clearly indicates that "a man cannot attract another man because they are the same, and a woman should not like a woman because they are also the same."
To earn more points, Amalaha used his "brilliant" mathematical abilities in this matter and came to the same conclusion!
"If we use A as a man and B as a woman, we will get B+A, that is, a man and a woman, showing the presence of a reaction. A+B reacted, they swapped places and gave us B+A, showing by this rearrangement of places that a man should not marry a man, and a woman should not marry a woman, ... but in the case of idempotence, A + A will give us A, showing that there is no reaction. We start with A, and we add A, and in the end we also get A. That is, the meeting of a man with a man A + A does not give a reaction. In chemical technology, such material must be sent back to the reactor to repeat the action, but there will still be no reaction. That's how mathematics shows that same-sex marriage is wrong, because the rearrangement of seats indicates the fallacy of same-sex marriage."
Well, yes, Amalakha is still just an undergraduate student, but he already says with confidence that he will someday receive the Nobel Prize. If his current job says anything, then he has as much chance of winning the Nobel Prize as an icicle to survive on a hot frying pan.
No. 5. Portland refuses to fluoridate waterIn the evening hours of Tuesday, May 21, many residents of Portland, dressed in blue, began to cheerfully clap their hands and smile.
Why? Because they just rejected one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century: water fluoridation.
This city in the northwestern United States has already refused such a method of water purification for the fourth time, becoming the only one in the top thirty most populous American cities in the metropolis that rejected fluoridation.
Critics of this technology have tried to defame it, calling it an insidious attempt to add a toxic substance to tap water. They said that this would lead to a decrease in intelligence, thyroid dysfunction, tooth pigmentation and other terrible consequences. But they did not understand the scientific conclusions completely and distorted everything.
When fluorinating drinking water, no more than one part per million of fluoride gets there. This is a negligible amount, and for six decades of the existence of this cleaning method, it has had virtually no negative impact on human health and the environment. However, adding this mineral to water reduces caries in children by 20-50 percent!
Apparently, Portland residents like natural and toothless smiles more.
No. 4. Jenny McCarthy against vaccinationsIn July, ABC announced that actress and TV presenter Jenny McCarthy, known for opposing vaccination, would be working on the daytime program The View.
This marked the beginning of outrage and loud criticism of writers and organizations concerned about health problems.
For many years, McCarthy has been promoting the discredited idea that the vaccine causes autism, and has also been actively campaigning against vaccination.
Speaking on the pages of The New Yorker, Michael Specter This is what McCarthy said about the new appointment: "Jenny McCarthy, who will start hosting The View in September, will become the first presenter whose dangerous views on vaccination of children can – even indirectly – contribute to the disease and death of people throughout the Western world."
But having joined the program in October, McCarthy wisely remains silent about vaccination. Let's hope that she will continue to be silent.
No. 3. Bigfoot DNA sequencedIn the past, those who believed in Bigfoot had only vague video frames and photographs from a long distance.
But in February, everything changed when forensic experts from Texas announced that they had sequenced Yeti DNA!
"The data obtained convincingly prove that the yeti exists as a preserved hominin and is a direct descendant of modern humans on the maternal side," the scientists wrote in a report published in a completely new journal, which they themselves founded.
As a result of a thorough analysis led by John Timmer from Ars Technica, this claim was refuted. The samples that this team worked with were seriously damaged. And they do not belong to some mythical ape, but, most likely, to various animals.
No. 2. The return of cold nuclear fusionThere is no more exciting scientific enterprise than fusion energy.
The synthesis of two elements releases a large amount of clean energy, which can provide the Earth for tens of thousands of years, and also be used for flights to nearby stars.
But such bright prospects give rise to scammers who seek to lure you to part with your money. As for synthesis, the most famous hoax is the E—Cat device, or energy catalyst, which supposedly synthesizes nickel and hydrogen at room temperature. (A huge temperature and pressure are needed for synthesis).
That's why many people were very surprised this spring when independent tests seemed to show that the catalyst works!
But the cautious revival proved short-lived. Physicists Ethan Siegel and Peter Thieberger have blown the test results to smithereens (which none of the relevant organizations have checked). Here 's what Siegel wrote:
"If this was a science experiment of an undergraduate, I would give him a deuce, and that's all. There is no reliable information, but there is only an assumption of success, there is confidence in the data provided and approximate estimates "from the manufacturer". That's not how they do science. This does not even come close to meeting the criteria of exceptional evidence supporting such exceptional claims."
No. 1. Terrible "documentaries" about natureThis year, the #1 story from the scientific garbage was written collectively, and it belongs to the Animal Planet and Discovery channels, which produced perhaps the worst and definitely the most disinforming "documentaries" about nature from among those that we can remember.
(Well, they didn't watch Russian TV channels... – VM.)Dubious fakes began to appear in May.
Animal Planet showed the film "Mermaids: New Evidence", piling together unconvincing video evidence and genuine scientific theories to entertain and mislead viewers. The only hint of the fictional nature of the film appeared at the end of the program in the form of a fleeting reservation that the channel is not responsible for the authenticity of the material.
Of course, mermaids don't exist. There is not a single material proof of their existence. And then, how could they defecate?
Noticing the record ratings of Animal Planet during the screening of the film, Discovery Channel issued another fake film on the mountain, which says that the 20-meter extinct giant shark megalodon exists today! But this channel did not even bother to submit a reservation that this is a fiction.
Numerous complaints followed, and the most weighty and clear of them was an open letter from marine biologist Christie Wilcox to the Animal Planet channel:
"Real scientific evidence would be more than enough to inspire Discovery Channel viewers. But it seems that you no longer care about the need to tell the truth and show the truth… The sad thing is that your audience completely trusts you and you have convinced them. According to your polls, more than 70 percent of viewers fell for your trick and now believe that the megalodon is not extinct. This film was not only a disservice to your inquisitive audience. It was a lie. You used your reputation to deceive the audience. And you haven't even apologized for this deception."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.12.2013