Journal #1

Esmeralda Santa

English 21003, Section M

Professor Matyakubova

3 September 2017

Journal #1

                                                    “Battling Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre

                After watching the TED talk “Battling Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre, I came to the realization that Ben Goldacre exposed the dark side of science. You not only have the media spreading false studies, but scientist /doctors themselves spreading inaccurate information just to benefit themselves. I would expect something like this to come from the media, but for professionals from the science field, it is just shameful. The common people trust doctors or scientists to tell the truth because they believe that they are experts in their fields. Scientists/doctors shouldn’t take advantage of the people’s trust and just put out any sort of claims only to make themselves rich or famous. I also agreed with Ben Goldacre when he defined science as the concept of saying something was true, but then being able to back it up with evidence. Although this is the case, the scary thing is that we never know when the evidence provided or the person who is providing it is legit because there are a lot of people out in the world who are good at deceiving. As Ben Goldacre stated his own dead cat can receive any kind of certification through the mail as long as he pays the fine. I found this to be very funny because it once again shows how easily anyone can be tricked.

                Another thing I found very interesting was when Ben Goldacre discussed the type of evidence that scientists/doctors used to prove their findings. He gave the example of the trials conducted to see how fish oil pills can improve children’s school development and also behavior. The team who conducted these trials had two errors, first they failed to create a control group and then their conclusions were completely illogical. I have been taking science since elementary and one thing that has stuck to me is the need for a control and experimental group which is why it was funny how the team didn’t follow the scientific method. Besides this, Ben Goldacre caught my attention when he discussed the “placebo effect”. The fact that in the Pharmaceutical industry pharmacists have been conducting inaccurate trials, by creating two groups and giving one group the actual pill and giving the other group a placebo in a higher/smaller dosage brings everything back to ethics. Science is about sharing our findings with others, so that they can continue the research, but as for any field we should be doing our job for the development of science and not just for the money/fame. It is always better to tell the truth because in that way we can grow as a city, country,or world.