Raise The Bar For Activist Groups That Practice "Pathological Science'.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(PERSPECTIVE)

Byline: HENRY I. MILLER

In 1897, the Indiana House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure that redefined -- inaccurately -- the calculation of the value of pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Little did the representatives know that you couldn't build a bridge or skyscraper using their value. (Fortunately, the bill died in the State Senate.)

This historical anecdote might elicit a sardonic chuckle from scientists. But nonexperts are increasingly being exposed to this kind of nonsense -- what chemistry Nobel laureate Irving Langmuir dubbed "pathological science," the "science of things that aren't so."

Pathological science is the specialty of self-styled public interest groups, whose agenda too often is not protection of public health or the environment, but intractable opposition to, and obstruction of, whatever research, product or technology they happen to dislike. Activists who disapprove of certain kinds of R&D or marketed products often try to stigmatize them via guilt by association with "corporate interests."

For several reasons, including the importance of corporate branding, avoidance of liability and a desire to succeed in the marketplace, industrial research most often adheres to high professional and legal standards, including peer review.

When it doesn't, the scientific method and market forces collaborate to ensure that, ultimately, chicanery and dishonesty are exposed and punished.

By contrast, activist-funded "research" is commonly held to a lower standard. Activist claims are invariably promoted by alarmist press releases and reported by the media, but seldom are they independently peer-reviewed or published in scientific journals.