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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: RetiredNow who wrote (1066771)4/26/2018 2:29:43 PM
From: Tenchusatsu  Read Replies (1) of 1578699
 
Mindmeld,
Why would scientists make up stuff about AGW? How do they benefit?
Because science is actually a very low-yielding profession. There are very few breakthroughs. Most of science is just data-collecting and formulating hypotheses that either don't pan out or are not much different than previous hypotheses.

There is a real temptation to fudge data or publish studies where the data doesn't support the conclusions. You get publicity, you increase the reputation of whatever department you represent, but you don't need to be peer-reviewed and you don't have to suffer any consequences if your conclusions don't pan out.

One of my favorite examples is the ubiquitous computer model. How many articles do you see on climate change that reference computer models? Yet these models aren't meant to predict the future. They are only there to test out hypotheses and see how well they hold up to real world results. Most of the time, they don't, and that's either because the hypothesis is invalid, or there are many other variables that weren't taken into account.

Bottom line is that there are many ways scientists can benefit from fudging the data or publishing articles that are meant more for publicity than for peer review.

Tenchusatsu
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