Revisiting Science

I was watching 60 Minutes tonight and saw an interesting story. Scientists are going back and looking (in fact some have never stopped looking)at what used to be called cold fusion. Now days, though, they are calling it a nuclear event so as not to be confused with Pons and Fleischmann in 1989. These two scientists careers were ruined when it turned out they could not recreate their results.

I'm not going to cite names as you can find the clip and watch if you want the exact information, but to summarize the 60 Minutes anchor talked to a scientist who has been working on this for thirty years and he seems to be getting positive results. They then talked to another scientist who said he was skeptical. After that they talked to the vice chancellor of research at the University of Missouri who and asked him to take a look at some of the research that was going on and study the results .

Interestingly enough his first reaction was, “I thought that question (science) had been decided long ago.” But he did agree to give it a gander. He visited a lab (in Israel I think), looked at their experiments and studied their data and conclusions. He came up with the opinion that there might be something to it and it was worth continuing the research.

The anchor asked him (the chancellor) what he had learned from the experience and he replied, “Don't let anyone do your thinking for you and don't be afraid to revisit science that people say has already been decided.”

The guy from 60 Minutes was wowed talking about how great this could be and wasn't it great that there were some scientists who were willing to face skepticism and even ridicule in pursuit of what they thought was right and possible.

At this point in the story I didn't know whether to laugh at this idiot anchor or scream. I mean these are the same folks who ridicule and deride anyone – absolutely anyone – who dares to say (or even speculate) that the science on global warming is not decided. And some of these people they are dismissing have very impressive credentials. A heck of a lot more impressive credentials than, say, Al Gore. Well that might not be saying much because I think any high school junior chemistry student has betteer scientific credentials than Al Gore – and more than likely a lot more integrity as well.

So let me repeat that for “Al and Pals” - don't be afraid to revisit science that people say has already been decided. Of course I know they won't listen because it's not about the science - it's about the agenda. It's exactly the same with embryonic stem cell research. Because the Bush administration cut off funding for new embryonic stem cell lines the science of adult stem cells lines was revisited and great strides were made.

Again, for liberals it's not about science – it's about the agenda.