Re: [Phys-L] just for fun

[John Mallinckrodt <ajm@csupomona.edu>]

I didn't say scientists don't make mistakes, I said that it is exceedingly rare for a scientific consensus as overwhelming as that on anthropogenic global warming to turn out to be flatly wrong.  I don't see how any of the proffered examples challenge that statement for one or more of the following reasons:

1) they exist at the fringe of what I would call "the scientific community," even more so the "physical science community," 
2) there was nothing like an overwhelming scientific consensus, and/or 
3) they weren't in any clear sense flatly wrong.

John Mallinckrodt
Cal Poly Pomona

On Dec 31, 2013, at 10:38 PM, Ze'ev Wurman wrote:

> Here are a few basic links in response to John Mallinckrodt's request for more information about cases 
> of recent failed scientific consensus. Primary sources can be followed from there as needed.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
>
> http://www.csicop.org/si/show/science_and_pseudoscience_in_adult_nutrition_research_and_practice/
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16epidemiology-t.html?_r=2&sq=Taubes%20health%20September%2016&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print