Third of study results don't hold up

I have listened to pundits and analysists on web, on the radio, and elsewhere be nothing but critical because there is so darned much to criticize. I am going to have to be careful that I do not end up in that trap. There is cause for great hope of our future. It just won’t come from watching the news or relying on man.

And that is what I was going to mention today. The Associated Press reports that “New research highlights a frustrating fact about science: What was good for you yesterday frequently will turn out to be not so great tomorrow.”

Gads, if we can’t even trust science, how can we believe anything we hear from anyone? Wasn’t Science supposed to be the firm and unyielding pillar that thrust our society from Dark Ages ignorance to Modern Intellectual Illumination? Yikes, as much as a sometimes pessimist as I am, I had no idea that there was this much shoddy work going on. And why? Partly it is pride in having more papers than others. Partly it is the ‘Publish or Perish’ mentality of academia. But regardless of what the reason is, this is a bad problem. Something is deeply wrong and I don’t really know what.