About critically consuming research...or I guess, uncritically consuming research... As witness to a recent fight I had with somebody claiming to be new to both research and HU, yet erudite and insistent on taking abstract conclusions at face which can hurt us all...which I don't really believe...and from whom we have apparently seen less of lately... It really is important despite being unpopular to remember anything can be adulterated by human frailties and motives...
The problem is even more complex and relates to old wives tales , preconditioning and bandwagons. It goes like this The researcher needs funding, therefore he does research on a subject that has desperate people looking for an answer or organizations holding money that have promised to fund research on that subject. The newspapers and news organizations pick it up and sensationalize the report. The researcher is interviewed on late night television and his conclusions seem reasonable, the world is his apple. He writes several books and accepts all invitations to conferences and lectures. and his book sales are amazing.The treatment or results or information finding that he has produced do not seem to be easily duplicated, many try but it does not matter because he has a large group of believers who say his finding has helped them. Many will continue to believe long after he is proven wrong or a cheat because that news is not given the same coverage plus we are told that big government and big companies are conspiring against him. It will take many years to undo the damage and he is already wealthy enough to just retire and live in his new island home.
Even those that promote their particular professional expertise with some easy to believe idea play the game and start the process to be a household name to promote their product or just revel in their piers admiration and their followers enthusiasm totally blind to any harm they are causing.
Children need a lot of calories to grow and be healthy
There is nothing bad about eating meat
Butter and whole milk are healthy food
The body needs salt and sugars , the amount depends on many things
Inoculations do not cause mental problems in children
and it goes on
People have suffered because others believed lies.
We must be able to rely on professional advise, alas.
This is not a rant.
This is a call for all of us to ensure that the information that we so enthusiastically spread is honest , true and tested , not a contribution to the problem.
Looks exactly the sort of thing we've been begging for, for sure.
Page itself says it is unpublished. The investigator placed his email address on that page, also a phone number and the institution's department, why not ask him whether and how the results can be shared. Maybe they have not been able to get a journal to accept it...or maybe the results were so incredibly good that a pharmaceutical company bought it to bury it, the noted "catch and kill" operation...
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