How confident are you about science?

In modern Britain, it is common for many people to look first to science to answer all manner of questions they may have. Rarely, however, do people stop and consider how confident they really are when they are told that the answer was ‘scientifically’ proven – even fewer consider some of the possible limitations even with professional and competent science papers.

Though books have been written about the philosophy of science, I will confine myself here to just two thoughts: one is flippant the other is more serious. You, dear reader, will have to choose for yourself which I meant as the flippant one. There are, of course, proper scientists conducted in genuine research and there are people conducting bad experiments because of vested interest in not finding anything. I refer below to limitations that genuine scientists may face.

1. Many scientists use measurements as a way of learning about the properties of something under investigation. For example, a cupboard in one room might be measured against a cupboard in another room using a ruler. If the first cupboard was found to be 1 metre high and the other 1.2 metres high scientist would normally infer that one cupboard was taller than the other. I suggest, however, that their analysis might equally say that they could not be sure there was not a ‘kink’ (a warp) in space time, which made the ruler and one cupboard alter dramatically in size. Therefore the cupboards might actually be the same size in terms of the spread of material over space when they are in separate locations, but there would be of knowing. When you take the ruler between the two rooms it would be affected by the space/time warp. So, unless you could take your ruler out of space and time - which no one yet knows how to do – your results hold that assumption and it should be stated.

2. Scientists rarely, if ever, consider the beliefs, emotions and conscious states of the researcher carrying out the investigation they write about. However, a study by Radin and Nelson (1989) found that based on 600 experiments which looked into Pychokinesis (the ability to move objects through will power) there was a small but consistent effect which correlated with what people were asked to think ‘will’ to happen. The analysis was based on studies which used techniques such as willing a dice to show a certain number or the ability to bend metals. One can only wonder about what effects they might have found when people actually cared about the subjects they willed to happen.

How convinced am I about science? I would say 85%. If a good scientist says something has been proven, I am inclined to believe it. However, knowing about some of the limitations of science (of which more anon) I am rarely entirely convinced.