Definition Of Scientific Research Forgotten?

Oh, were are Bacon and Galileo when you need them?

I love this thought about science from "Pen and the Spindle." It's all about fads.

We see it in soccer all the time. The most popular players are not necessarily the best ones. Hello, C. Ronaldo and Beckham. Science has gone pop-culture taking its "findings" to TMZ.

It really is too bad. As these paragraphs reveal, some good people become victims of this nonsense.

"This brings me to the definition of scientific research. Scientific research is not something produced by universities, institutions, and other building confined thought. Nor is scientific research a practice defined by the changing fads and feelings of academics. Scientific research is not what is reported in the media as we've found the cure. Nor is it the product of partisan funding which dictates the outcome before the project is begun.

Scientific research is a process of establishing verifiable patterns of activity without bias on the part of the researcher or observer. Bias exists in all research, but the trick is to identify the presence of bias within the researcher/s and the research environment and actively and consciously bracket this out or build in safety controls to prevent contamination. This is not taught in academic research class anymore.

I have seen more valid research performed statistically and qualitatively by non-affiliate academics and by run-of-the-mill BA degree owners than by institutionalized scientists who seem always to miss the point. Yet, the work that gets acceptance is the work produced by institutionalized minds, and the research that could make a real difference is consigned to the trash heap of history.

It remains one of the greatest sadnesses for me that friends who are brilliant academics and contributing minds have been sidelined because their research no longer fits the fad. It is no wonder we are still dogged by AIDS and by other social issues that could be solved but for the lack of the right people in the right places."