Science: 5 things you can do to avoid being fooled by bad science literature in 2023

If you regularly read scientific news, you can easily be misinformed. Whether it’s a newspaper article stating a health risk (or promoting a miracle cure) based on poor quality research, or an incredibly exciting “breakthrough” you’ll never hear about again, we all get frustrated with scientific news.

Last year was no exception. Every month a scientific story was published, which was the subject of hype, exaggeration, or simply misrepresentation of information, often supported and encouraged by the scientists themselves.

But every time something goes wrong, we can try to learn from it. So here are five science New Year resolutions: five ways to make sure we don’t get scammed when we read about science in 2023.

1. Treat “breakthroughs” with a grain of salt

Science works slowly. Each new study is usually a small brick in a very large wall, adding a little to our knowledge of the topic. True breakthroughs—discoveries that have revolutionized the field of science—are rare.

So what about headlines describing huge, world-shaking scientific discoveries? Sometimes they are simply redundant, as we will see below. But sometimes they just need a little perspective.

In November, for example, research into a new Alzheimer’s drug, lekanemab, was described as a “significant breakthrough” on the front page of the BBC website. On the one hand, this was an exaggeration: the study showed that the drug slowed the progression of the disease by about 27 percent in a specific screening test for dementia. The researcher quoted in the BBC article even said the results weren’t dramatic, but the headline stuck nonetheless. The drug also had some worrisome side effects; there is still a need for development. On the other hand yes was earlier a real step forward at a time when all previous attempts to develop drugs for Alzheimer’s disease have failed.

The same can be said about the December “big breakthrough” in fusion energy. Again, in the context of the extreme difficulty of launching fusion and decades of disappointment and false discoveries, this was indeed a step forward: scientists in the US got a fusion reactor to produce more energy than they put into it. But, as many physicists point out, it will be a very long time before we can build a working fusion power plant due to the huge cost of materials and many scientific problems.

So, let’s decide to take a deep breath in 2023 when we hear the news of a scientific “breakthrough” and read the context in front of us. in excited.

2. Trust no one

Media headlines can always exaggerate the importance of scientific research. But often the hype around science comes not from journalists, but from the scientists themselves.

Take, for example, the April study on the use of psychedelics to treat depression. The authors issued a press release claiming that psilocybin, a chemical found in hallucinogenic mushrooms, “rewires the brains of depressed people, freeing them” from research). to express). , “frees” her brain). But the study was very preliminary, involving only 43 people and focused on brain imaging using an MRI scanner.

Any actual effect on symptoms of depression has been studied in separate studies, which in turn have many problems of their own. The study was far from ready for prime time publication, but the authors still decided to send it to the media.

Or take another neuroscience study, this time from January 2022. blockbuster New York Times The headline told us that free cash gifts to parents changed their children’s brains. But this was a study that tried to walk before he could walk: the scientists showed an effect on the electrical activity of the brain, measured on the scalp of babies, but did not even test the effect on their behavior or development. Again, these were preliminary results that would be interesting after much more follow-up. And that, in turn, didn’t stop the researchers from issuing a bloated press release. The media, understandably, given the positive and encouraging results, simply could not resist.

Scientists are interested in discovering the truth about the world. But some are also interested in moving up the corporate ladder, attracting the attention of financiers, and even gaining fame and notoriety. So another 2023 resolution is to remember that scientists can’t always represent their own research accurately — and to be particularly skeptical when they appear to be highlighting the importance of their latest research.

3. No, seriously: don’t trust anyone.

It’s not just hype. While we all hope that scientists are doing their job with the utmost integrity, 2022 has brought with it a series of sad stories of scientific fraud.

for example in October New York Times published an article about “Photoshop’s nasty problem” in science: it said that thousands of biology papers had been published with photographs of microscopes, petri dishes, etc. that had been digitally manipulated in inappropriate, potentially fraudulent ways. Scientists duplicate, stretch, crop, recolor, or otherwise manipulate their images to make their results look stronger, even if it greatly distorts the truth of what they’ve discovered. Reviewers, who are said to be the eagle eyes of all scientific discoveries, often fail to notice this.

And it could go straight up: In November, the president of Stanford University, widely regarded as one of the best universities in the United States, was accused of manipulating images in some of his earlier work as a neuroscientist. His research was investigated by his own staff, but Stanford’s board of trustees said in early December that he was innocent of scientific misconduct. For the same reason, in September, one of the 2019 Nobel Prize winners in medicine or physiology had to interrupt four studies.

These high-profile examples of possible research misconduct remind us that even the greatest scientists are human, and that, if proven, even the professors of the most prestigious universities can be bewildered by human error. Our third resolution for 2023 should be that even the scientists who have made the biggest deals subject their claims to the most scrutiny. After all, isn’t that what science does?

4. Avoid Controversy

Perhaps the above points sound rather negative towards mainstream science. But I came to improve science, not to bury it. Last year we also learned what can happen when science skepticism goes too far.

The past year began with a wave of anti-vaccine rhetoric. Former scientist Robert Malone appeared on the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast and made many false claims about Covid vaccines. This led to months of controversy, backlash and hackneyed excuses.

Anti-vaccine claims have spread to the world of online “gurus” where chatty, charismatic personalities startle their YouTube and podcast subscribers with outrageous statements and deviate further from rationality. Since then, false complaints about the dangers of mRNA recording have erupted in some parts of the mainstream media, both in the UK and elsewhere. In each case, the media personalities built their audience by constantly declaring that “they”—meaning the government, health officials, scientists, and the pharmaceutical industry—were involved in a grand, sinister conspiracy.

This is an object lesson on how not to think about science. We saw above that constant questions are needed. But the point is to follow the facts, not to take old arguments and throw them at conventional wisdom. And it’s about doubting everything – included your own page. Let’s resolve not to become reflex opponents in 2023.

5. Be (carefully) optimistic

With wars, economic crises, and everything else, 2022 has often seemed pretty bleak. The scientific oversights mentioned above are not very encouraging. But be careful: knowing how science (and scientific reports) can go wrong will help you avoid false hopes.

But science in 2022 has given us cause for sincere optimism. Perhaps the most exciting of these has been the progress made in the development of a malaria vaccine. Despite slow rollout, the vaccine is making its way to countries hardest hit by the disease, where it can save tens of thousands of children from death each year. And that’s not the only treatment area worth watching with interest: 2022 has seen significant advances in “universal” flu vaccines and even cancer vaccines.

Not only that, 2022 brought stunning images of distant galaxies from the James Webb telescope, among other things, helping to deepen our understanding of the universe. This has spawned trials of weight loss drugs that seem to actually work. And it has brought advances in battery technology that could lead to faster charging and smaller energy sources for electric vehicles.

There’s a lot more in store for 2023, so our final New Year’s resolution should be to remain cautiously optimistic. Despite many shortcomings, we should never lose sight of the fact that science is the best tool we have to make the world a better place.