Or the public misconception of science as distorted by the media and others.
It is the day before my birthday and I thought I might share one of my heroes. It has not been mentioned before (and will not again), that my field of work (when not dabbling with websites) is clinical statistics and auditing. And it is not because I am ashamed of it (which is normally the first accusation!) Far from it, I am passionate about the subject and feel I need to contain this for when I am in the working environment lest it threaten to write me of as an insufferable bore. Statistics only really became useful to me at work, this is a real shame. At school stats were horrifically underused and no due care and attention was was afforded never mind dedicated to the importance of how these statistics were gathered correctly (without bias, with thought to how the information could be critiqued) and how the findings could be manipulated - especially in regards to the ethical ramifications of such practices. In school I was taught how to gather statistics in mathematics and in science the importance of reaching a conclusion via method. I had not heard of the term “control group” until my selective study of psychology in college some years later at the age of 17 and I am not an old bird and believe my education to have been quite varied compared to my peers.
The subject talked about below runs deep with me, not only as I am involved in creating statistics and reports myself , but also as the effects of the 'bad science' are close to me on a personal level. The work I produce is on behalf of vulnerable people and I personally know health workers who have to make tough choices and who actively advocate certain methods and medications that they believe they are clued up on to the best of their knowledge (which can be stunted by the available information - in no way a fault of the worker).
I now have the ability to manipulate statistics myself (despite being staunchly opposed to the practice) as well as knowing how to read and use them. I believe that learning how to manipulate information and understanding how information can be so distorted and abused can be an important tool to aid us in clearing up a lot of obfuscation and sheer deceit from the world we live in and take a look at a perception of the world that a lot of people still either do not buy into or are kept from due to a lack of transparency. The fear mongering we can see prevalent in our media is eaten up by the vast majority of the population as pure fact and it is eaten up as fact, because it is peddled as such, blinding everyday people with bad science and information taken out of context. I personally would like to call for a change in our education system to teach our youth how to find the information themselves, question the facts and speak up when they believe “stuff stinks”, such thinking is not often encouraged until a-level and even degree level work. Ben Goldacre is one such man who vocalizes loudly every week in the Guardian Newspaper (UK) when he notices a “stink”. And has written a book of the same name “Bad Science” so I would like to share a Ted Talks video of his as it concisely, eloquently, humorously and much more intelligently expresses everything I am trying to get across with this post.
LAW
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