Respectful Insolence: How do you know when you're doing science wrong?

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Orac is the nom de blog of a (not so) humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued here, along with a DISCLAIMER that you should read before reading any medical discussions here.)

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« A perfect storm of quackademic medicine and bad journalism | Main | Accusations against skeptical physicians: 1. "You have no compassion" »

How do you know when you're doing science wrong?

Category: Humor • Medicine • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking
Posted on: May 28, 2008 3:50 PM, by Orac

Easy:

Comments

"If you can't accept that you're mistaken, you're not doing it at all."

I'm definitely going to reuse this line. It's so succinct and accurate, I love it.

Posted by: Fred | May 28, 2008 4:24 PM

Very good.

Is this from
http://www.despair.com/

Posted by: Uncle Dave | May 28, 2008 5:30 PM

I love demotivators. I think my particular favorite is:
"Compromise: Let's agree to respect each other's views, no matter how wrong yours may be."

Posted by: Craig | May 28, 2008 6:43 PM

That?
Is priceless.

Posted by: JonMcSkeptic | May 28, 2008 7:25 PM

It's not only of science; it's life too.

Posted by: George Picoulas | May 28, 2008 10:13 PM

good one.
allow me to add in:
"if your hypothesis can't be falsified, you're doing it wrong."
and
"If all you have is a complaint that something can't be right because your beliefs say it can't, you're not doing science."

Posted by: DLC | May 28, 2008 10:58 PM

"if your hypothesis can't be falsified, you're doing it wrong."

Yeah, they missed that one.

Posted by: Orac | May 28, 2008 11:39 PM

Ooh. That looks like desktop wallpaper.

Posted by: Kassiane | May 29, 2008 12:49 AM

I think DLC is trying to stoke up a philosophical fight.

In practice, it is difficult to falsify any one hypothesis, because there are a great many auxiliary hypotheses that could also be wrong.

They also missed "Science. It's just lots of balls joined together with sticks".

Posted by: Bob O'H | May 29, 2008 1:21 AM

Bob O'H: no, not really. I'm no philosopher.

Posted by: DLC | May 29, 2008 5:58 AM

Uncle Dave: Cheers, though credits where due: inspiration was provided by the 'How does a scientist or doctor become a crank?' thread, the image was taken from the Materials Research Society's desktop wallpapers page, with final assembly courtesy of Big Huge Labs.

DLC: Gonna need a bigger poster generator. :)

Posted by: has | May 29, 2008 11:19 AM

Classic. h/t to LBRB, I was pointed towards this excellent passage from Prometheus:

One of the problems with getting emotionally involved with a scientific hypothesis is that they are notoriously dangerous things to love. Hypotheses don't care how much you love them or depend on them - they live or die by the data. And holding on to a dead hypothesis is as pointless (and creepy) as holding on to a dead cat or dog. Once they die, it's time to bury them and move on.

That would make a good poster.

Posted by: Mary Parsons | May 29, 2008 4:13 PM

Neat site...

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/output/deck5322711.jpg

Posted by: Anthony | May 30, 2008 1:54 AM

has;
Thanks for the link!
Actually I am a ASM member, thanks for the MRS link as well.

Posted by: Uncle Dave | May 30, 2008 10:16 AM

Lately I seem to have a lot of conversations in which I use the sentence, "The mark of a true scientist, or a true scholar, is that they like being proven wrong almost as much as they like being proven right, provided you do it in an interesting way."

Posted by: SM | May 30, 2008 11:09 AM

If your hypothesis can't be falsified, you're not just doing it wrong, you're doing it at all.

Posted by: Roo | June 1, 2008 10:00 PM