The Horrors Of A Scientist Doing Pseudoscience

"Few scientists have caused more death and suffering than Trofim Lysenko. He was a Soviet botanist whose ideas around genetics (i.e., he didn’t believe in it) led to massive famines across multiple decades when Josef Stalin promoted his ideas across the country. And yet… He’s becoming popular again. Why? Let’s look at it."

Click on the link below for a video presenting an example of the consequences of even scientists not understanding the scientific method, with horrible consequences:

The Absolute Worst Scientist Of All Time - And Why He’s Popular Again

Sam Harris VS Ezra Klein Regarding Genetics & IQ

One of my favorite podcasts is Sam Harris' Waking Up.  I have known for years that he is controversial for some of his conservative views. But, he really is difficult to pin down politically. That said, there is a major firestorm going on after *he and Ezra Klein debated recently. The topic of controversy was regarding the role of genetics in IQ: Harris supports the significant influence of genetics and Klein does not.  What is the truth?

Here are several links presenting research in this area: link; link; link; link; link.  In studying the topic, I have come to the conclusion that, if genetics do play a role, it is minor compared to the role of history and environment/culture in which humans evolved.  Thus, I do not accept Sam Harris' view of the importance of genetics and IQ.

(*The debate was over the writings of Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein in their book The Bell Curve.  This article challenges the sources of its data, and this link to Wikipedia presents more criticism of the book and its findings.)

 

Epigenetics Is A Young Field, With Some Questionable Information

TED gets epigenetics wrong, but the juggernaut rolls on

Epigenetics: A New Pseudoscience Highjacking

Epigenetics is real science, but knowledge in this field is in its infancy.  So, the woo-meisters have found another buzzword to fool the gullible.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/19/epigenetics-dna--darwin-adam-rutherford