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Tuesday 12 April 2011

Balls-ache

For me, a balls-achingly tiresome feature of modern life is the scare story supposedly based on scientific findings. Almost all are founded on some kind of statistical analysis, rather than the more reliable and verifiable science of theory and experiment. Most seem to be backed by an official policy which tends to stay out of sight.

Evidence-based policies supported by policy-based evidence. You couldn’t make it up, could you? Who can tell which is science and which is policy? Clearly not the journalists who copy and paste the press-releases.

So are scientists really biased in favour of official policies with research funding behind them? Of course they are, especially policies supposedly designed to promote health and well-being. It would be ludicrously naive to think otherwise, wouldn’t it?

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