What happens when Science gets things wrong.

[studiot]

Perhaps we should make this BBC presentation a sticky for members to point out to those not understanding how Science works.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why-getting-things-wrong-is-good-for-science/p09mb351

[Holmes]

In answer to the question posed in the title of the OP:

• The challenger disaster
• Cold fusion
• Chernobyl
• Thalidomide
• Curing homosexuality

etc, etc, etc

For those unfamiliar with thalidomide, read this, a kid in my class in school was a victim and my mother tells me I could have been but she refused the drug at the time.

Teaching about these mistakes (as opposed to silly things like Pluto and misidentified fossils) would indeed help people understand how science doesn't "work" sometimes.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Holmes

[Alex Mercer]

What do you mean by science? Do you mean real scientists who make mistakes with medication that give fucked up side effects and even lead to death or do you mean internet forum scientists who contribute nothing. Science seems to be whatever you want it to be you just science is this and science is that changing it to whatever you feel like. 

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, Alex Mercer said:

What do you mean by science? Do you mean real scientists who make mistakes with medication that give fucked up side effects and even lead to death or do you mean internet forum scientists who contribute nothing. Science seems to be whatever you want it to be you just science is this and science is that changing it to whatever you feel like. 

You should eat something.

[studiot]

1 hour ago, Alex Mercer said:

or do you mean internet forum scientists who contribute nothing.

No I mean those who cannot distinguish between the word 'Science' and the word 'scientists'.

Thank you for the support from whoever does not want to derail this thread.

[beecee]

1 hour ago, Holmes said:

Teaching about these mistakes (as opposed to silly things like Pluto and misidentified fossils) would indeed help people understand how science doesn't "work" sometimes.

Sure! but science isn't a "stick in the mud" type discipline like for example, religious faith, and is a discipline in continued progress, always learning/modifying/adding/improving as time goes on. Scientists like everyone else, makes mistakes. The scientific method ensures we learn from those mistakes.

That is what is needed to be taught.

[OldChemE]

2 hours ago, Holmes said:

In answer to the question posed in the title of the OP:

• The challenger disaster
• Cold fusion
• Chernobyl
• Thalidomide
• Curing homosexuality

 

Except perhaps for cold fusion and homosexuality, these are not Science-- they are applications of science coupled with engineering, management, and in some cases marketing decisions.  It is the applications of science (among other things), sometimes poorly conceived, that lead to disasters.  Science not applied generally does not hurt anybody.  As for homosexuality, It is merely one facet of the normal range of human behaviors.  Not my thing but I don't think it needs a cure.