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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 22 2017, @11:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the whom-do-you-trust...-and-why? dept.

Danger, Will Robinson!

Given that collaboration [in science] is the norm, you may be asking yourself the eternal question: Who cares? How does the image of a lone scientist hero cause any danger to me?

The problem arises when there is a debate about a scientific topic. Following this structure, debate is a necessary and encouraged part of the scientific process. This debate happens before the idea is released to anyone outside of a few scientists and, while it can become heated at times, takes place with great respect between proponents of different viewpoints.

The danger can come when scientific results are released to the public. Our society now provides a platform for anyone to comment, regardless of his or her education, experience or even knowledge of the topic at hand.

While this is an excellent method of disseminating knowledge, it can also provide a platform for any opinion—regardless of the weight of data behind it—to be equal to that released in more traditional scientific ways.

Particularly in today's largely populist climate, people are looking to see the lone scientist hero overthrow the perceived dominance of facts coming from academia.

And herein lies the problem. In this situation, the opinion of a lone commenter may be considered on equal footing with that of tens or hundreds of people who have made the subject their life's work to ensure their interpretations are correct.

Everybody is entitled to their own scientific opinion, but everybody is not entitled to their own scientific facts?


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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:42PM (3 children)

    by looorg (578) on Wednesday November 22 2017, @03:42PM (#600194)

    It's kind of interesting tho how the system by itself is quite solitary to get into academia. You write all your own degrees, you work on your own on your bachelor, your master and then on your PhD. Sure you have a mentor and someone to talk to, there are the endless meetings and little group things where you talk about your work and others work etc. But you still do all the heavy lifting on your own. Don't think I have ever seen two people write a PhD together, not saying it's not a thing somewhere but I can't recall ever seeing it. Then when you are finally a doctor they pair you up with other people cause now you can't be the lone genius anymore -- now it's all about the team and the group effort. Perhaps they should have thought about that a bit sooner in the process if it's not so dangerous to work alone.

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  • (Score: 1) by ants_in_pants on Thursday November 23 2017, @06:29AM (2 children)

    by ants_in_pants (6665) on Thursday November 23 2017, @06:29AM (#600539)

    Most papers are published as the product of a research group.

    --
    -Love, ants_in_pants
    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday November 23 2017, @09:05AM (1 child)

      by looorg (578) on Thursday November 23 2017, @09:05AM (#600577)

      Most papers are published as the product of a research group.

      Yes. But those are usually written when you are actually done with your education, there are exceptions as some of them are written or include PhD candidates but they normally don't write these on their own. As I said the process to get into academia is a solitary task but once you are done, as in you have your PhD, then it all of a sudden becomes a group effort. Which I find odd then, first you spend say 10ish years to train someone to do things on their own and then all of a sudden they have to start to cooperate with others.

      • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday November 23 2017, @10:59PM

        by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday November 23 2017, @10:59PM (#600863)

        Which I find odd then, first you spend say 10ish years to train someone to do things on their own and then all of a sudden they have to start to cooperate with others.

        Not that your complaint is not valid, but welcome to the working world.