The Scientific Superstition

Most of us have come across these reports of various scientists who have carried out ‘research’ in each and every field under the sun.

There are reports of scientists researching the effect of smoking on pregnant women, the effect of mobile phones on our..uh..virility, the effects of eating oranges and lemons and ginger and turmeric and fenugreek and so on…

I sometimes (okay, a lot of times!!) read these reports and I am awestruck at the variety and the depth up to which the talented scientists are researching the subjects the world wants to hear about.

Sample this article which appeared in ToI sometime back, “Scientists tested a group of 100 women in the age group of 25-40 and showed each of them a picture of Brad Pitt and a bar of chocolate. Almost 78% of the women found the bar of chocolate to be more desirable.” The scientists then are said to have come to the earth-shattering conclusion that women preferred chocolate to Brad Pitt. Einstein would have ‘ROFL’d (sorry for using this internet slang, but I found its usage more appropriate considering the tone of the post) hearing this and would willingly forsake his Nobel Prize for this theory!!

Another similar article which was a lot less ‘scientific’ reported that a sample survey of people in Indian cities showed that Idly and Dosa were a preferred dish for Breakfast. These compared to aloo parathas were a much healthier and a tastier option. On one hand, a report indicates Garlic is a very good antioxidant, a must in our everyday diet while on the other hand, we have another report suggesting that men who had just eaten garlic were 64% less likely to have sex later!!

Another one on chocolate indicates that some chemicals in chocolate induce testosterone flow and hence act as an aphrodisiac while a report published just a week later indicates chocolate to be one of the major causes of some heart or liver disease.

Dagny Taggart, one of the characters in Ayn didi’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is shown to turned her wrath upon a scientific institute which could not/ did not report the merits and demerits of ‘Rearden Metal’ accurately. Accusing the institute for blasphemy as it did not carry out its function of accurately determining the properties of that metal. But of course, that was fiction!!

Laymen like myself tend to take all this research outputs to be true and try to change our lives until another experiment proves that oops!! That was wrong. I begin to imagine what it would be like if a man would believe every report ever published. What kind of life would he have. Would his life be just the number of breaths he’s taken??

More important is the question which kind of researchers research the ill effects eating burgers at midnight!! Who supports and funds this frivolity masked by the term science?? And why do papers publish this crap being dished out from these so called scientific institutes?

Science was supposed to be exact until a Mr. Heisenberg turned up. But scientific reports still have to be holistic and not contradictory. The issue at hand is supposed to be viewed from all angles until a report is published and dished out to morons like us. If you cannot predict the exact results atleast, give the band in which the results are going to lie. But the bottom line is give us the whole picture when you are hell bent on dishing out your “Research Papers”.

Happy Reading!!