How Bad Is The Government’s Science?

Half the results published in peer-reviewed scientific journals are probably wrong. John Ioannidis, now a professor of medicine at Stanford, made headlines with that claim in 2005. Since then, researchers have confirmed his skepticism by trying — and often failing — to reproduce many influential journal articles. Slowly, scientists are internalizing the lessons of this irreproducibility crisis. But what about government, which has been making policy for generations without confirming that the science behind it is valid? —Peter Wood and David Randall, The Wall Street Journal, 17 April 2018

A reproducibility crisis afflicts a wide range of scientific and social-scientific disciplines, from epidemiology to social psychology. Improper use of statistics, arbitrary research techniques, lack of accountability, political groupthink, and a scientific culture biased toward producing positive results together have produced a critical state of affairs. Many supposedly scientific results cannot be reproduced in subsequent investigations. This study examines the different aspects of the reproducibility crisis of modern science. The report also includes a series of policy recommendations, scientific and political, for alleviating the reproducibility crisis. –The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science: Causes, Consequences, and the Road to Reform, National Association Of Scholars, 17 April 2018

A report published [in 2016] by the Global Warming Policy Foundation reveals the extent to which current policy-making is reliant on untrustworthy peer-reviewed research, much of which cannot be replicated and “may be simply untrue”. —Global Warming Policy Foundation, 31 October 2016

If the planet is entering a new solar minimum, the theory would predict falling temperatures. Perhaps not immediately — there may be buffering effects that aren’t well understood — but in not too many years. Here’s the nice thing about the sun-spot theory: It’s a testable hypothesis. The theory states in no uncertain terms that solar radiation as measured by sunspots is a key driver of earth’s climate. The theory says that cycles in earth’s temperatures closely match cycles in sunspot activity. We appear to be entering a phase in which sunspots are going dormant. Temperatures should drop — not just for a year or two but in a sustained matter. We should be able to confirm or disprove the sun-spot hypothesis within a few years. —James A. Bacon, Bacon’s Rebellion, 12 April 2018

Exorbitant battery storage costs prevent rooftop solar installations from paying for themselves in the long run, making home energy storage an impractical use for average consumers in the foreseeable future, a new study determined. –Jason Hopkins, The Daily Caller, 16 April 2018