We live in a time where science has become The Science, a regime-affiliated religion whose purpose is to justify ill-gotten profits and tyrannical policy.
This goes together with many other failures: bias due to funding, the replication crisis, p-hacking, the pressure to publish positive results and data falsification. Here is a good summary to get you started on the scale of the problem (HT).
What a perfect opportunity to recall and admire real science. The following story is a perfect example.
Scientists were once certain that stomach ulcers and gastritis are caused by either stress or too much acid - the sources vary. Perhaps they thought the stress caused the acid.
In any case, these conditions were treated with antacids, antidepressants or psychotherapy.
A gastroenterologist from Perth, of all places, thought that was wrong. Barry Marshall reckoned that it was caused by harmful bacteria, based on earlier research that had shown a weird type of spiral microbe was present in sufferers.
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