Why the "NASA Tested Space Drive" Is Bad Science 315
StartsWithABang writes Just over a century ago, N rays were detected by over a hundred researchers and discussed in some three hundred publications, yet there were serious experimental flaws and experimenter biases that were exposed over time. Fast forward to last week, and NASA Tests Microwave Space Drive is front page news. But a quick analysis shows that it isn't theorists who'll need to struggle to explain this phenomenon, but rather the shoddy experimentalists who are making the exact same "bad science" mistakes all over again.
Skeptics. (Score:5, Funny)
Have they accounted for the presence of skeptics during the experiments? That is likely the cause of any anomalies.
Re:BLINDED BY SCIENCE !! (Score:3, Funny)
More like blinded TO science.
Any 2nd year physics student should be able to laugh this garbage right off a lab bench without even running an experiment. Its truly pathetic.
Re:Space Drive or Global Warming? (Score:5, Funny)
Just because you can't prove global warming is happening doesn't mean that it isn't. The science behind it is settled since over 90% of the scientists voted that it is happening. You can't disagree with it without being anti-science because of that.
Re:Don't have to go back 100 years (Score:5, Funny)
Not to mention that ColdFusion tended to exhibit a lot of remotely exploitable bugs.
Re:BullShit (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Space Drive or Global Warming? (Score:4, Funny)
a Triceratops riding John Wilkes Boothe.
I can't decide whether this is funnier with or without a hyphen between "Triceratops" and "riding."
Bit of a spelling error in the article. (Score:5, Funny)
The term that applies here is either "Bad Journalism" or "Bad Science Reporting". Calling it "Bad Science" and leaving it at that is giving the real charlatans a free pass.
Scientist: "Hey, this is weird... We just put together something that shouldn't work but it sort of looks like it did."
Headline: "NEW EXPERIMENT PROVES THAT EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT PHYSICS IS WRONG!"
Scientist: "It's not that... Look, here's a copy of a presentation we just gave to the rest of the department. There's a tiny and barely measurable bias in our results that we should be able to explain away but can't."
Headline: "SCIENTIST WITH TWO ASSES HAS RESEARCHERS BAFFLED!"
Scientist: "Um, that wasn't a press release, just a little paper we threw together to discuss our results. It's for other people familiar with what we're doing, and who know what words like 'bias' mean."
Headline: "LEAKED INTERNAL DOCUMENTS REVEAL NEW LAWS OF PHYSICS!"
Scientist: "I'm just going to back away slowly now and call some nice friends of mine who can show you out of the building. Try not to make any sudden moves..."
Headline: "SCIENTISTS INVOLVED IN COVERUP OF REVOLUTIONARY NEW SPACE DRIVE!"
Scientist: "Well, look at that. I just put a minus sign instead of a plus sign in one of the equations. If you do the math over again the results make a little bit more sense this way."
Headline: "REVOLUTIONARY SPACE DRIVE SCIENTIST WITH TWO ASSES IS A FRAUD! HOW WERE WE ALL FOOLED?"