You hear the phrase a lot, but what is bad science? Examples abound, from Piltdown Man to Cold Fusion, and yet, aside from scandals, the topic is often avoided. Our current exhibit addresses bad science, from poor methodology and bad data, to bias and scientific misconduct.

Resources:

Alistair B. Fraser. Bad Meteorology. http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/BadMeteorology.html.

John P. A. Ioannidis.  (2005) “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.”  PLoS Medicine. v. 2(8): e124. http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124

Larry Orcutt.  (1999) Bad Science: or, Some Lists Useful in Dealing With Questionable Science. http://whww.catchpenny.org/patho.html

Phil Platt. (2008) Bad Astronomy. http://www.badastronomy.com/index.html

M. Scott.  Strange Science:  the Rocky Road to Modern Paleontology and Biology. www.strangescience.net/

Books Used in This Exhibit:

AUTHOR:    Plait, Philip C.
TITLE:        Bad astronomy : misconceptions and misuses revealed, from astrology to the moon landing 'hoax'.
DATE:         2002

AUTHOR:    Taubes, Gary.
TITLE:        Bad science : the short life and weird times of cold fusion.
DATE:        1993

AUTHOR:    Hering, Daniel Webster, 1850-1938.
TITLE:        Foibles and fallacies of science; an account of celebrated scientific vagaries.
DATE:        1924    

AUTHOR:    Judson, Horace Freeland.
TITLE:        The great betrayal : fraud in science.
DATE:        2004

AUTHOR:    Spier, Raymond E. (ed.)
TITLE:        Science and technology ethics.
DATE:        2002

AUTHOR:    Nichols, Herbert L.
TITLE:        Science blundering : an outsider's view.  
DATE:        1984

AUTHOR:    Grayson, Lesley.
TITLE:        Scientific deception : an overview and guide to the literature of misconduct and fraud in scientific research.
DATE:        1995

AUTHOR:     Krebs, Robert E.
TITLE:         Scientific development and misconceptions through the ages.
DATE:         1999

AUTHOR:     Jastrow, Joseph.
TITLE:         The story of human error.
DATE:         1936

AUTHOR:     Shermer, Michael.
TITLE:         Why people believe weird things : pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time.
DATE:         1997

AUTHOR:     Dewdney, A. K.
TITLE:         Yes, we have no neutrons : an eye-opening tour through the twists and turns of bad science.
DATE:         1997