Science Friction_ Where the Known Meets the Unknown - Michael Shermer [7]
Marcia Angell wrote a book on this subject, Science on Trial, in which she explained how “a lawyer questioning an epidemiologist in a deposition asked him why he was undertaking a study of breast implants when one had already been done. To the lawyer, a second study clearly implied that there was something wrong with the first. The epidemiologist was initially confused by the line of questioning. When he explained that no single study was conclusive, that all studies yielded tentative answers, that he was looking for consistency among a number of differently designed studies, it was the lawyer’s turn to be confused.” As executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Angell recalled that she was occasionally asked why the journal does not publish studies “on the other side,” a concept, she explained, “that has no meaning in medical research.” There is “another side” to an issue only if the data warrant it, not by fiat.
The case of Marcia Angell is an enlightening one. She opens her book with a confession: “I consider myself a feminist, by which I mean that I believe that women should have political, economic, and social rights equal to those of men. As such, I am alert to discriminatory practices against women, which some feminists believe lie at the heart of the breast implant controversy. I am also a liberal Democrat. I believe that an unbridled free market leads to abuses and injustices and that government and the law need to play an active role in preventing them. Because of this view, I am quick to see the iniquities of large corporations.” What’s a disclaimer like this doing in a science book? She explains: “I disclose my political philosophy here, because it did not serve me well in examining the breast implant controversy. The facts were simply not as I expected they would be. But my most fundamental belief is that one should follow the evidence wherever it leads.” Francis Bacon would approve.
My favorite example of the beauty and simplicity of science is the case of Emily Rosa and her experiment on Therapeutic Touch. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Therapeutic Touch (TT) became a popular fad among nursing programs throughout the United States and Canada. The claim is that the human body has an energy field that extends beyond the skin, and that this field can be detected and even manipulated by skilled TT practitioners. Bad energy, energy blockages, and other energetic problems were said to be the cause of many illnesses. TT practitioners “massage” the human energy field, not through actual physical massage of muscles, tendons, and tissues (which has been shown to have therapeutic value in reducing muscular tension and thereby stress), but by waving their open palms just above the skin. This is touchy feely, without the touchy. A professional nurse friend of mine name Linda Rosa became alarmed at the outrageous claims being made on behalf of TT, as well as the waste of limited time and resources in nursing programs and medical schools on it. TT was even being employed in hospitals and operating theaters as a legitimate form of treatment. In September 1994, the U.S. military granted $355,225 to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Burn Center for experiments to determine if TT could heal burned skin.
One day Linda was watching a videotape of TT therapists practicing their trade when her ten-year-old daughter, Emily, got an idea for her fourth-grade science project. “I was talking to my mom about a color separation test with M&Ms,” Emily explained. As she watched the TT tape, she reports,