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from the even-smart-people-can-perpetuate-stupid dept.
False beliefs and wishful thinking about the human experience are common. They are hurting people — and holding back science.
[...] These myths often blossom from a seed of a fact — early detection does save lives for some cancers — and thrive on human desires or anxieties, such as a fear of death. But they can do harm by, for instance, driving people to pursue unnecessary treatment or spend money on unproven products. They can also derail or forestall promising research by distracting scientists or monopolizing funding. And dispelling them is tricky.
Scientists should work to discredit myths, but they also have a responsibility to try to prevent new ones from arising, says Paul Howard-Jones, who studies neuroscience and education at the University of Bristol, UK. "We need to look deeper to understand how they come about in the first place and why they're so prevalent and persistent."
Some dangerous myths get plenty of air time: vaccines cause autism, HIV doesn't cause AIDS. But many others swirl about, too, harming people, sucking up money, muddying the scientific enterprise — or simply getting on scientists' nerves. Here, Nature looks at the origins and repercussions of five myths that refuse to die.
These are some of the science myths that will not die.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday December 20 2015, @03:55PM
early detection does save lives for some cancers
Don't even get me started on this one. This is a sad tale of how a programmer who mentors women programmers and wants more women programmers and might be a woman herself got labeled a pro-rape misogynerd who wants to control women's bodies because of some bullshit promulgated around the medical community that mammograms should only be taken once every two years.
Protip: Never, never, never fucking ever mention that study when there's a Susan G. Komen rep in the meeting. I wasn't even the one who did that. Result: now I'm pro-rape. Eh, who cares. In three months, if I can't find a way around this (given that I'm apparently an all men hive-mind)—I'm prepared to start a lawsuit before it comes to this—a hospital is going to be very embarrassed when I decide to move forward with amputating my genitals in urgent care.
Also, keep in mind, doctors are the reason why I'm even considering this. If my genitals hadn't been mutilated at birth, in the first place, I might not be facing dealing with the physical pain genital mutilation left me with again.
Let's do the math. Get me a copy of the CIA World Factbook! Thanks, Rockapella!
12.49 births/1,000 population (2015 est.)
Ok, how many people live in the good ol' USA?
321,368,864 (July 2015 est.)
Ok, so that means we just need to do some multiplication.
>irb
irb(main):001:0> 321368864.0 / 1000.0 * 12.49
=> 4013897.11136
Yeesh, four million? Check my figures, Mr. Child Prodigy Wolfram!
Q: Number of live births per year in the United States of America
A: 4.24 million people per year (world rank 6th) (2014 estimate)
Ok, I'll go with my low estimate. Hey, Jeeves! Oh, you're retired. I have a question anyway. How much does it cost to mutilate a baby's genitals? Oh god! The shitstorm (for good reason, which I am about to reveal)! Where is the answer?! Help me out, NPR. Hmm… female genital mutilation… more female genital mutilation… FEEL GUILTY for female genital mutilation!… Here we are! [npr.org]
Hmm… that didn't help. Ok, we're going to have to go off my wonky memory of $300 per pop (well, technically strap down, violent tearing of tissue, and torture). Also assume the rate of genital mutilation is 50% for male births in the USA, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics went fucking nuts trying to get more people to mutilate genitals in 2012. The linked NPR article is the only report that attempted to be unbiased. Every single other news source said that infant male genital mutilation was necessary because it would prevent toddlers, who have all kinds of sex, if I understand the other reports, from transmitting HPV to women.
irb(main):005:0> 321368864.0 / 1000.0 * 12.49 * 0.25 * 300
=> 301042283.352
There you have it, folks! Infant genital mutilation is a $300,000,000 per year industry of human suffering in the USA.