Ideas for Second Research Paper

• You may pick any of the topics that you may have considered for the first paper but didn’t follow through on.

• If you heard other students mention something that sounded interesting you may do independent research on that topic.

• Pick something interesting!

• Here are some new angles to think about.

The Role of Hoaxes in Research

• We have seen that the fabrication of data is one of the biggest ethical breaches in science.

• Yet people sometimes deliberately put out fake data or fake artifacts in order to expose the sloppy standards of other people in the field!

• The way fakes are exposed can tell us a lot about the quality control mechanisms operating within various disciplines.

Locating Hoaxes/Frauds (sometimes the distinction is not clear)

• Donald Simanek, a retired physicist, has compiled a useful web site:

• www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/skeptic.htm#mistakes

• Another useful site is:

• http://whyfiles.org/084hoax/biblio.html

• Hoaxes pose all sorts of ethical issues:

– Is it ever legitimate to deceive your colleagues even though you will eventually “debrief” them?

– Are hoaxes an efficient way of improving standards in a field?

• Are hoaxes usually perpetrated by central figures in the field or people on the fringe?

Laundry List of Hoaxes/Self-Deceptions

• Alan Sokal (see his web site)

• Kensington runestone and Kari Ellen Gade (Lexis-Nexis)

• Paul Kamerer (A. Koestler, Case of the Midwife Toad)

• Polywater (Wm. McKinney’s Ph.D. thesis)

• Piltdown Man (essay by Stephen Jay Gould)

• Cases in Mismeasure of Man

– Samuel George Morton

– Broca and phrenology

- Sir Cyril Burt

Frauds in Science

• Sir Cyril Burt represents a typical cause of fraud - the scientist sincerely believes that data will eventually turn out to support their hypothesis. It starts out more like “floating” a check than forging a check, but then gets out of hand.

• Museum displays offer an interesting borderline case:

– Keith Parson’s Drawing Out Leviathan tells about the dinosaur with the wrong head.

Dubious Science Inspired by Religion

• The interpretation of data and the evaluation of theories is sometimes explicitly influenced by religious or political convictions. Examples:

– Islamic Science (critiqued by Pervez Hoodbhoy)

– Hindu/Vedic Science (critiqued by Meera Nanda)

– Creation Science (critiqued by Philip Kitcher and Michael Ruse)

– Afrocentric Science (critiqued by Bernard Ortiz de Montellano)

– Multicultural Mathematics (defended by Jphn Kellermeier)

How to Focus Discussion of Such a Broad Topic

• Pick a specific bone of contention.

• Try to sort out exactly what values/beliefs are in conflict in this instance.

• Can people with certain sorts of religious beliefs ever be accepted into the scientific community as it is presently constituted?

• Do such people contribute anything to science? Do their alternative suggestions or sceptical disclaimers ever help science or are they almost always a hindrance?

Lots of Topics in Archeology

• Kenniwick man (constraints on scientific research from Native American religious/political beliefs)

• Who do artifacts belong to? Should cultures with good museums, etc. protect them for peoples at war or lacking in good facilities?

• Karen D. Vitelli, ed., Archeological Ethics