GIGO

Believing Scientists

Consumer protection campaigns encourage us to ask for credentials. Does the builder belong to the Master Builders' Federation, has the baby-sitter got good references?

Yet when it comes to scientific information, many of us are prepared to take the word of someone described as a "scientist" at face value. We expect that they know what they are talking about, particularly if they have "Dr" or "Professor" in front of their name.

Perhaps we should not be so blasé, perhaps it is time to encourage the concept of a "card-carrying scientist". I recall one suggestion for a degree wording which said:

The University certifies that John Doe does not know about anything but biochemistry. Please pay no attention to any pronouncement he may make on any other subject, particularly when he joins with others of his kind to save the world from something or other.

At least John Doe was assumed to be qualified in something. I saw a documentary interview with a Harvard physicist discussing the sonic levitation of stone blocks used to build the Great Pyramid. Later investigation revealed that the "Harvard physicist" had been at Harvard as a student and had dropped out of his undergraduate physics course after one semester. A visiting "Professor" lecturing here on levitation devices had apparently awarded himself his degree and title.

So what's the harm you ask? We get a little light entertainment out of this sort of thing, the lecture fees aren't very much, who cares?

I believe we should care, and not just the people who are members of the scientific community who are having their credentials and their credibility eroded by this sort of thing, but also ourselves as members of society. We are all called upon every day to make decisions that often require us to be informed on some scientific or technological issue -- should the baby be immunised, which kind of food should we buy, will our car blow up if we put unleaded fuel in it?

If we are to make informed decisions, we need to have confidence in the information and its sources -- just any old John Doe with a title will not do.

I recall one pseudo-documentary which had an alleged "Harvard physicist" on it discussing the sonic levitation of the stone blocks used to build the Great Pyramid. Analysis of the programme on a science newsgroup produced the information that the "Harvard physicist" had been at Harvard as a student and had, apparently, dropped out of his undergraduate physics course after one semester.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.