Category: Science

What Would We Do Without “Gold Standard” Researchers?

Protected Class Science 7 Comments

How a tiny circle of repeat offenders poisoned 100s of gold-standard medical trials for over a decade… and didn’t go to jail.

In a recent study, researchers set out to investigate how many retracted randomized clinical trials were linked to superretractors (authors with the most retractions) and to highly cited authors with multiple retractions.

They found that just 6 superretractors were co-authors on 22% of all retracted clinical trials studied, 5 were based in Japan, and 1 was from Germany. Also, a group of 18 top-cited scientists were involved in 25% of all retracted trials. The retractions were highly concentrated in specific areas like anesthesiology, endocrinology and metabolism.[…]

To become a superretractor, first, a researcher must produce large volumes of unreliable, duplicate, or fabricated work, often fueled by the publish or perish system of academia that rewards output over rigor and lacks strong oversight. Second, that misconduct has to be uncovered through investigation and exposure.

Superretractors can also act as superspreaders of contaminated research. When flawed or fabricated trials enter systematic reviews and meta-analyses, they are amplified and woven into widely used evidence summaries. By the time a study is retracted, it has often already shaped these studies referenced for developing clinical guidelines that doctors rely on. The result is a cascade of distorted evidence that can translate into incorrect, even harmful, decisions in patient care.

What Would We Do Without China?

Claws of the Panda Science 5 Comments

Chemistry World;

Research papers that list Chinese institutions account for more than half of the retractions across 10 academic publishers, according to a new large-scale analysis.

The study, which has not been peer reviewed yet, was published on arXiv last month and examined 46,000 retractions issued by scholarly journals between 1997 and 2026 that were indexed by the Retraction Watch Database.

According to the study, there were 29,867 Chinese affiliations listed on these retractions – more than 91% of which don’t list international collaborators. Researchers in China produced 16.5% of all research output during that time period, the study found, despite the country’s institutions being listed on more than 52% of retracted papers in the sample.

Following China, institutions based in India, the US and Saudi Arabia feature on 7.25%, 5.72% and 2.83% of retractions, respectively.

Higher Unlearning

More Money Than Brains Our Diversities Science 27 Comments

From what I’ve read of the subject, a lot of modern physics consists of the manipulation of mathematical formulas that are largely self-referential and bear little or no relation to reality. A lot like modern economics, in fact. The laws of logic, causality and identity are just so old school, I guess.

Basically, a key piece of mathematics creates bulk masses of fermions that are manifested in the so-called fifth dimensional warped space. This pocket “dark sector” is one possible way to explain the huge amount of dark matter that, so far, has eluded detection using any traditional measurements designed for the standard model of physics. Fermions jammed through a portal to a warped fifth dimension could be “acting as” dark matter.

Not Going Boldly, If At All

Forward! Science 4 Comments

When space exploration is stupefied by progressive imperatives:

We are, however, told that we need more deaf and disabled people in space. Because space exploration just isn’t difficult enough and dangerous enough as it is. And choosing astronauts with hearing problems, poor eyesight and motor-control issues will make things much more exciting.

And frankly. when you’re asking, apparently in all seriousness, how a mission to Mars would benefit Black Lives Matter, as if it somehow should, I think we can say that the foolishness in the room has risen to hazardous levels.

Oh, there’s more. Much more.

What Would We Do Without Medical Journals?

Children R Our Future Quackery Science 10 Comments

At Retraction Watch: The official journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society has just acknowledged that more than 100 of its case reports are fabricated.

Paediatrics & Child Health, the journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society, has published the cases since 2000 in articles for a series for its Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program. The articles usually start with a case description followed by “learning points” that include statistics, clinical observations and data from CPSP. The peer-reviewed articles don’t state anywhere the cases described are fictional.

The corrections come following a January article in New Yorker magazine that mentioned one of the reports — “Baby boy blue,” a case published in 2010 describing an infant who showed signs of opioid exposure via breast milk while his mother was taking acetaminophen with codeine. The New Yorker article made public an admission by one of the coauthors that the case was made up.

Trans-Violence is Violence

Media Quackery Unsettled Science 45 Comments

Western Standard- Another transgender mass shooter, and no, gun laws aren’t the problem

National Post- Live updates

Julia Hartley Brewer- Julia Hartley-Brewer’s scathing message to media outlets for telling the public “lies” about the sex of the suspect of the Canadian school shooter.

Elon Musk- Giving rage-inducing hormones to mentally ill people is insane

Sun- This is not a time for woke politics or politically correct sentiments

Update from Kate. Alternative media is way out ahead of the woke mainstream:

Western Standard: The inside story on the Tumbler Ridge Shooting (mostly commentary).

We’re Going Back To The Moon

Science What He Said 60 Comments

…and It’s Kind Of Weird That Nobody Is Freaking Out?

I actually hadn’t twigged this properly until now. The last manned mission to orbit and land on the Moon was Apollo 17 in December 1972: Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans.

To date, Cernan is the last human being to have walked on the Moon, on December 14th 1972 – when I was just over a year old.

So yes, this is huge. I reckon we should all be talking about this (yelling, in fact) – and applauding the astronauts who are about to travel further from home than almost any living human being…

Safe and Effective®

Safe and Effective Unsettled Science 59 Comments

>=A major new study from Stanford Medicine, published in Science Translational Medicine, offers a fundamentally new explanation for rare cases of mRNA vaccine–associated myocarditis. Rather than simply showing that cardiac injury occurs, the researchers identify a specific immune signaling mechanism that can trigger heart cells to damage themselves from within.

Crucially, the authors describe this mechanism as a potential class effect of mRNA technology, raising important design considerations not only for current COVID vaccines, but also for future mRNA vaccines and cancer therapies.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Safe and Effective Unsettled Science 15 Comments

The CDC has updated its “Autism and vaccines” page.

Pursuant to the Data Quality Act (DQA), which requires federal agencies to ensure the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information they disseminate to the public, this webpage has been updated because the statement “Vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim. Scientific studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines contribute to the development of autism. However, this statement has historically been disseminated by the CDC and other federal health agencies within HHS to prevent vaccine hesitancy.

HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links. This webpage will be updated with gold-standard science that results from the HHS comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism as required by the DQA.

I expect we’ll be hearing lots about this.

What Would We Do Without Research?

climategate Quackery Science 11 Comments

Stat Modeling; (sorry about the code glitch)

The point is that I shouldn’t be so shocked to hear that Columbia medical school has prominent faculty who’ve been involved in research fraud. If you’re a medical researcher and a cheater, then research fraud is a natural step. Just as if you’re a storekeeper and a cheater, then ripping off your customers and employees is a natural step; or if you’re a statistician and a cheater, then it makes sense to hire yourself out as a data manipulator; or if you’re a CEO and a cheater, then it makes sense to fake your corporate reports; or if you sell used cars and you’re a cheater, then you’ll hide the flaws in your cars; or if you’re a university administrator and a cheater, then it makes sense to fake your U.S. News statistics . . . ulp! In all these examples, there’s a clear incentive to cheat: if you play honest, it’s easy to fall behind your competitors who could be cheating too. Indeed, you could argue that, if you play by the rules, you’d be letting the side down . . . it’s arguably unethical not to cheat. You’re developing treatments what will save lives, after all!

Via Steve McIntyre: Gelman didn’t mention the following famous statement by climate scientist Stephen Schneider

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