Science woo
From RationalWiki
"Science woo" is special variety of woo, in that it is based on generally accurate and current science. What makes it "woo" is the lack of understanding of the scientific background of the issue, often caused or abetted by poor reporting in the popular press. In some extreme cases (like "chaos theory", "vacuum energy", "zero point energy" and "quantum computing"), only the name of the scientific principle or discovery has actually made it into the popular culture and minor details like what they actually mean are left up to the imagination.[1]
The popular press may be partially to blame for this, in that advances in science or new scientific hypotheses are interesting topics to read about - and can be genuine "news" items - but to explain them roughly to the average reader, virtually all the details must be left out. Popular science media also bears some of the blame, by playing to public tastes for sensationalism over skepticism and drama over fact; hence, articles on speculative topics such as how the universe will end, may be based on accurate science but have an actual likelihood of occurring of close to nil.[2]
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[edit] Examples
Prominent examples of science woo tend to cluster around very abstract hypotheses in physics that have strange predictions (whether "valid" and useful yet or not). These include the venerable quantum theories[3], chaos theory, string (and superstring) theory, fractals, the work of Nikola Tesla, and anything interesting one ever reads about black holes. Two common features of most of these occurrences of science woo are one, lack of genuine familiarity with the field in question, and two, an utter lack of familiarity with the mathematics required to understand them. Biological examples tend to leap far beyond minor test results to almost magical "cures" for cancer, obesity, and stupidity.
[edit] Terraforming
For an example of science woo, take someone who may have read an article in Omni magazine (or an Arthur C. Clarke novel) about terraforming Mars, or at least creating sustainable human colonies there. While every speculation about how this would work may be grounded in valid scientific principles, the reader may make the leap to thinking the only real obstacle is getting enough ships to Mars to get it started. Then (and this is where the woo kicks in), when presented with an issue about environmental damage here on Earth, their reply might simply be "Well, then, we'll terraform Mars!" The very complex concept of terraforming Mars may indeed have some validity - but if we can't keep Earth "terraformed" first, how could we possibly succeed on Mars?
[edit] Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity prototypes vibrating on scales give a false weight-change reading. Gyroscopes are another anti-gravity favorite but they don't get lighter. They would only work to squeeze energy out of the rotating Earth. A gyro points in one direction while the planet turns under it. It would be a great power source but the gearing ratio would be 4,320,000 to one.
[edit] Perpetual motion
Skeptics often ask, "If your perpetual motion machine is so good why isn't it widely available?" And the reply is invariably, "The oil/coal/nuclear industry/government is conspiring to suppress my invention." But utility companies are required by law, in the U.S. & E.U., to buy back excess juice. So if their machine works, all they have to do is phase match their machine to the AC line with an inverter, sit back, and collect their payments. Also, the US government has such a strong interest in reducing the use of fossil fuels that it would jump at this, even as it violates the laws of thermodynamics, despite John Hutchison's claims to the contrary.
[edit] Space woo
"Space woo" is the kind of woo peddled by Richard Hoagland on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell/George Noory. Since all woo depends on the inaccessibility of counterevidence to third parties, nothing is more ripe than space woo. The images of Mars returned from the Viking orbiter in the 1970s, with its primitive camera providing resolution only down to 150-300 meters per pixel provided an instance of pareidolia when a mountain was imaged that resembled a human face. Hoagland asserted that it was a monument, something like Mt Rushmore on Mars. When the Mars Observer probe was sent much later, with resolution down to two meters per pixel, they took a picture of the "face" and Hoagland got really quiet.
[edit] Others
This phenomenon extends beyond the intentional woo, to a person who buys and consumes many various dietary supplements, herbs, and vitamins, and even normal food items, and "knows" for what each are supposed to be curative or preventative. Each of these factoids may rest on nothing more than reading of a preliminary study in the Science section of their local newspaper or television news show. Often these stories lead with a dramatic claim, to make a headline, and then barely make it clear that the test groups were very specifically chosen and that the results were barely statistically significant. The woo-ee simply memorizes the magic list of potions and takes them in order to live forever. Such overconsumption of one single item can actually have adverse consequences.
Also, many purveyors of intentional woo like to throw as much woo on the wall to see what sticks. For instance, Danie Krugel likes to mix space woo, quantum woo, and bio woo all together to convince everybody.
[edit] Technology dangers woo
A subset, or perhaps flip side of science woo, is the "ack, technology is dangerous woo". Cell phones are killing our honey bees is one example. Other examples include: power lines cause cancer, mercury amalgam fillings cause just about everything, microwave ovens create "toxins" in your food, and aspartame is hazardous to your health[4].
[edit] Science as a religion
A special section of science woo has been optimized by the advertising world who turn "science" into a virtual "religion" with scientists acting as something like "priests" to the unsuspecting, under-informed, too-trusting public. Generally, ads using such woo put bespectacled men or women in crisp white lab coats in front of a myriad of glass flasks, bottles, and beakers filled with liquids of pretty colors, who then look directly into the camera with that look of authority and toss out Woo Words(TM) like "laboratory analysis", "scientifically proven", "research has shown", and "experts agree". Then then move on to sell anything from the latest diet aid, to the best carpet cleaner in the world. The woo-ed sit back and, unable to decipher "carbon tetra anything" from "oxidization reactions" accept the woo and buy buy buy buy buy.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Pretty much all the major sci-fi TV shows are guilt as sin of this. If you want your TV scientifically accurate, you're best of with The Big Bang Theory.
- ↑ See the Top 10 Ways To Destroy The Earth. Implausible; maybe. Fun; definitely. Which sort of proves the point, really.
- ↑ With even neopagans getting into the act
- ↑ Well, all the other artificial sweeteners were, so why not the blue packets, too?
