Secrecy in science : Thoughts from Kansas
Secrecy in science
Category: Policy and Politics
Posted on: May 20, 2009 3:26 PM, by Josh Rosenau
Scientists generally advocate for openness. Full disclosure of methods is vital
to peer review and to reproducibility or even evaluation of experimental
results. Scientists are also pushing hard for a new publishing system which
doesn't hide research behind copyright walls. The community of science is
largely an open book, encouraging collaboration, review, and public discussion
of new findings.
In general, this tends to prevent scientists from hyping their results.
That obviously didn't happen with D. masillae.(Ida)
As Brian and Carl point out, the find
is probably not quite as important a transitional form as the press releases
tend to claim.The paper's phylogenetic analysis is weak, and the public claims
about D. masillae's relationship to other early primates are probably
overstated. It's a good early adapid, but it probably won't revolutionize primatology.
Comments
1
I completely agree that this find is not what its being 'projected', 'marketed'
and 'sold' as. And, I am not a fanatic with religious ideas opposing evolution.
Big names like google and national geographic are in agreement with it.
Seems like their agenda is to turn a 'flaky theory' into an 'established fact'.
Only time will tell if this hubris will turn out anything of value or lay a dud.
The fact that Mr Hurum decided to name the specimen after his daughter
says a lot about his self-propagating intentions. I am sure the book, the
movie and a soft toy named Ida will all do well, as their is an abundance of
folks ready to suck it all up.
It is quite unfortunate but such are the times...
Posted by: Tracy | May 21, 2009 4:28 AM
The event, which will coincide with the publishing of a peer-reviewed
article about the find, is the first stop in a coordinated, branded media event,
orchestrated by the scientists and the History Channel, including a film
detailing the secretive two-year study of the fossil, a book release, an
exclusive arrangement with ABC News and an elaborate Web site.
“Any pop band is doing the same thing,” said Jorn H. Hurum, a scientist at
the University of Oslo who acquired the fossil and assembled the team of
scientists that studied it. “Any athlete is doing the same thing. We have to
start thinking the same way in science.”