Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud PDF
Preview Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud
VOODOO SCIENCE VOODOO SCIENCE the road from foolishness to fraud ROBERT L. PARK This book has been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Robert L. Park 2000 Not to be reprinted without permission The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 978-0-19-860443-3 CONTENTS Preface 1 It’s Not News, It’s Entertainment In which the media covers Voodoo Science 2 The Belief Gene In which science offers a strategy for sorting out the truth 3 Placebos Have Side Effects In which people turn to “natural” medicine 4 The Virtual Astronaut In which people dream of artificial worlds 5 There Ought to Be a Law In which Congress seeks to repeal the laws of thermodynamics 6 Perpetuum Mobile In which people dream of infinite free energy 7 Currents of Fear In which power lines are suspected of causing cancer 8 Judgment Day In which the courts confront “Junk Science” 9 Only Mushrooms Grow in the Dark In which Voodoo Science is protected by official secrecy 10 How Strange Is the Universe? In which ancient superstitions reappear as pseudoscience Index Preface In 1982, William (Willy) Fowler, a Cal Tech physicist whose seminal work on elemental abundances would be recognized with a Nobel Prize a year later, called me to ask if I would use my sabbatical year to establish an office of public affairs in Washington for the American Physical Society. Physicists needed to be kept informed of developments in Washington that were having a profound effect on them and the things they value. Perhaps, he said, it would also be possible to communicate the concerns of the physics community, not just to the leaders of government but to the public. It was to be an experiment. Through most of its existence, the American Physical Society, then headquartered in New York, had not felt the need for a Washington presence, but times were changing. Public support for science began to unravel during the Vietnam War. Seientists who had enjoyed public adulation for their contributions to victory in World War II and for putting a man on the Moon found themselves denounced for government connections that a short time earlier were seen as patriotic. Within government, the Cold War ruled. Government censors were attempting to control the exchange of unclassified scientific papers at open scientific meetings, the federal budget for fundamental research had been slashed, and the nuclear arms race was spiraling out of control. I was long overdue for a sabbatical. There had just never been a time when I felt I could be away: graduate students needed guidance, there were the constant demands of proposal writing to keep a large research group going, I edited an international journal in the field of surface physics and chaired the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maryland. In the spring, however, Ellen Williams, who had joined my research group from Cal Tech as a post-doc, was appointed an assistant professor. I could leave the group in her hands for a year. At the end of the year someone else would take over in Washington; I would return to teaching and to the research on the atomic structure of crystal surfaces that had occupied most of my waking hours for more than twenty years. At the end of the year, however, there was no one standing by to take my place in Washington. There is no greater privilege than to be a tenured professor of physics at a great university, but tenure carries with it an obligation to speak out against the errors of our times. I elected to divide my time between teaching at the University of Maryland and the direction of the Washington office. My direct involvement in research wound down as my graduate students completed their research. My research group long ago became Ellen’s group, prospering under her direction. Of the major problems confronting society—problems involving the environment, national security, health, and the economy—there are few that can be sensibly addressed without input from science. As I sought to make the case for science, however, I kept bumping up against scientific ideas and claims that are totally, indisputably, extravagantly, wrong, but which nevertheless attract a large following of passionate, and sometimes powerful, proponents. I came to realize that many people choose scientific beliefs the same way they choose to be Methodists, or Democrats, or Chicago Cubs fans. They judge science by how well it agrees with the way they want the world to be. A best-selling health guru insists that his brand of spiritual healing is firmly grounded in quantum theory; half the population believes Earth is being visited by space aliens who have mastered faster-than-light travel; and educated people wear magnets in their shoes to restore natural energy. Did we set people up for this? In our eagerness to share the excitement of discovery, have scientists conveyed the message that the universe is so strange that anything is possible? What can we tell people that will help them to judge which claims are science and which are voodoo? I began to include my encounters with voodoo science in my weekly electronic column, What’s New, and in articles in the popular press. One of those articles was an op-ed in the New York Times to which the editor gave the title “Voodoo Science.” Both the article and the title seemed to strike a resonance with readers, and I was invited to expand it for inclusion in a wonderful book of essays, Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip-Mining of American Culture, edited by Katherine Washburn and John Thornton at W. W. Norton & Company. My agent, Theresa Park (no relation), urged me to further expand “Voodoo Science” into a book. She has remained a constant source of encouragement and support, even through a disastrous first attempt. I will, of course, be delighted if scientists read my book and find it entertaining, but it wasn’t written for them. I had no interest in writing a scholarly book to be read only by other scholars. Kirk Jensen, my editor at Oxford, agreed, and suggested that the book read, as much as possible, like a narrative, unencumbered by references and footnotes. The price for that approach is that it leaves scant opportunity to acknowledge the writings of others, particularly the clear-eyed champions of a rational, scientific view of the universe, including Richard Dawkins, Martin Gardner, Ursula Goodenough, Steven Gould, James Randi, Michael Shermer, Steven Weinberg, and E. O. Wilson. I am indebted to those who took time from their own writing to read all or portions of the manuscript: Barry Beyerstein, K. C. Cole, Alex Dessler, Ursula Goodenough, Francis Slakey, David Voss, and Peter Zimmerman. They suggested numerous improvements and spared me certain embarrassment. I bear sole responsibility for remaining flaws. Special thanks to my son, Robert T. Park, who helped me think through many of the ideas in the book during long Sunday runs along Northwest Branch. Finally, I am grateful to the American Physical Society, which for sixteen years has allowed me to share my thoughts with an audience of some of the smartest people in the world, asking only that my weekly column carry a disclaimer: “Opinions are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the APS, but they should be.” VOODOO SCIENCE Chapter 1 It’s Not News, It’s Entertainment In which the media covers Voodoo Science JOE NEWMAN AND THE ENERGY MACHINE I called Joe Newman at his home in Lucedale, Mississippi. I was surprised when he answered the phone; I had tried several times before and always got a recorded message offering his book, The Energy Machine of Joseph W. Newman, for $74.95. I explained that I was writing a book about ideas that are not generally accepted by scientists, and it would not be complete without a full account of the Energy Machine. He seemed suspicious. “It’s all in my book,” he snapped. I told him I’d read his book at the time of the 1986 Senate hearing, but I wondered if his ideas had changed over the years. His voice softened. Well, he said, the book had been expanded and I should buy a new copy, but he still stood by everything he’d said before about how the Energy Machine works. I waited through a long silence while he thought about what else he should tell me. Then he began talking. The big change since the Senate hearing was that Joe Newman had found God. Raised in a Methodist orphans’ home until he ran away at fourteen, Joe became an atheist because he didn’t believe a God would permit little children to suffer that much. But he now realized that the Energy Machine was meant to relieve human suffering, and that God had chosen Joe Newman to make the discovery because “he knew Joe Newman would be a good steward for his gift.” It saddened Newman that, in spite of his efforts, the benefits from the Energy Machine were still not reaching the people of the world. “I do it for the human race,” he said, “but the people I trusted most betrayed me and the human race.” His patent lawyer, the company that supplied the batteries for his machine, even those who had testified on his behalf in court and in the Senate hearing had all used or sold his ideas. There are motors based on his ideas on the market right now, he assured me, that are more than 100 percent efficient; the manufacturers refuse to admit it so they won’t have to pay him royalties. He didn’t mind his ideas being stolen, if that meant they would be turned into things that would help the world, but these people were hiding the truth about his discovery. “They don’t care about humanity,” he said sadly. There was a flash of the old Joe Newman when he vowed to sue his betrayers. The refusal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to grant him a patent for “an unlimited source of energy” no longer mattered, he explained; he had patented the Energy Machine in Mexico, and because of the NAFTA and GATT agreements, his patent is now good all over the world. “A jury will bury these people,” he assured me.
The list of books you might like
