• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Teaching science with pseudoscience Sensing Murder put to the test Night terrors Coconut oil for Alzheimer’s? Amber teething beads revisited number 104 – winter 2012 content editorial Using pseudoscience to teach science 3 The murder that never Sensing Murder: overtaken by events 6 was – Part 2 Newsfront 10 Things that visit by EORGE Gwaze was first cleared of the murder of his adopted night 12 Gdaughter Charlene Makaza on 21 May 2008. At the time I wrote Forum 13 in NZ Skeptic 88’s Newsfront that it had taken since the first week of 2007 for him to be acquitted of a non-existent crime: Charlene had Could coconut oil be an option for treating died from a massive Aids-related infection. Little did I realise the Alzheimer’s? 16 Crown would retry the case – the only time a Not Guilty verdict has been overturned in a New Zealand court – and Gwaze would have Amber teething beads to face another four years to clear his name. revisited 17 From the vaults 19 It may seem a strange case to attract the interest of the NZ Skeptics, apart from the fact that one of our members, Dr Felicity Goodyear- Smith, acted as a medical adviser for the defence in the first trial, but it could be seen as a late manifestation of the sexual abuse panic which swept the western world in the 1980s and 1990s. This had its origins in a book titled Michelle Remembers, which recounted ISSN - 1172-062X memories of satanic ritual abuse recovered under hypnosis from a young woman, Michelle Smith, by her therapist (later husband) Contributions Lawrence Pazder. Though skeptics at the time were quick to note Contributions are welcome and that these ‘recovered memories’ had similarities with those reported should be sent to: by Budd Hopkins, who used hypnosis to uncover ‘memories’ of alien David Riddell abduction, or various proponents of reincarnation who used similar 122 Woodlands Rd techniques, there was a rash of satanic ritual abuse cases arising out RD1 Hamilton of hypnotherapy sessions over the next few years. Email: [email protected] In time, the satanic element faded, but the panic only became the Deadline for next issue: more destructive because of that, with many people ‘recovering’ September 10 2011 memories of more mundane forms of sexual abuse, often by their Letters for the Forum may be edited parents. Families were torn apart; the damage continues to this day. as space requires - up to 250 words In a parallel development, testimony of sexual abuse (often ritual is preferred. Please indicate the in nature) was elicited from pre-school children at day-care centres publication and date of all clippings and kindergartens by suspect interviewing techniques. for the Newsfront. In most of the world the day-care sexual abuse panic has been Material supplied by email or CD is appreciated. recognised for what it was, and those who fell victim to it have mostly received large compensation packages. Not so in New Permission is given to other non- Zealand, where Peter Ellis is still on record as a convicted child profit skeptical organisations to abuser, after spending seven years in prison for alleged offences at reprint material from this publication provided the author and NZ Skeptic the Civic Creche in Christchurch – the same city where the Gwaze are acknowledged. family lives. Sexual abuse of children is a terrible crime and, per- haps understandably, when the prospect is raised rationality tends Opinions expressed in the New Zealand Skeptic are those of the to fly out the window; other scenarios often don’t get a look in. The individual authors and do not George Gwaze case – and the ongoing injustice suffered by Peter necessarily represent the views of Ellis – shows that even (or perhaps especially) on this most emo- NZ Skeptics (Inc.) or its officers. tional of issues, it’s necessary to keep a cool head, and to consider Subscription details are available all possibilities. from www.skeptics.org.nz or PO Box 30-501, Lower Hutt 5040. number 104 – winter 2012 main feature Using pseudoscience to teach science Alison Campbell There may indeed be a place for creationism in the science classroom, but not the way the creationists want. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ Skeptics Conference. E LIVE in a time when debating with others – in order A related concept here is that Wscience features large in to develop scientific knowledge, there’s a hierarchy of journals, our lives, probably more so understanding and explanations with publications like Science at than ever before. It’s important (ibid., p28). the top and Medical Hypotheses that people have at least some In other words, studying sci- at the other end of the spectrum. understanding of how science ence also involves learning about Papers submitted to Science are works, not least so that they can the nature of science: that it’s a subject to stringent peer review make informed decisions when process as much as, or more than, processes – and many don’t aspects of science impinge on a set of facts. Pseudoscience make the grade – while Medi- them. Yet this is also a time offers a lens through which to cal Hypotheses seems to accept when pseudoscience seem to be approach this. submissions uncritically, with on the increase. Some would minimal review, for example a argue that we simply ignore it. Thus, students should be being paper suggesting that drinking I suggest that we put it to good encouraged to think about how cows’ milk would raise odds of use and use pseudoscience to valid, and how reliable, par- breast cancer due to hormone help teach about the nature of ticular statements may be. They levels in milk – despite the fact science – something that Jane should learn about the process of that the actual data on hormone Young has done in her excellent peer review: whether a particular titres didn’t support this. book The Uncertainty of it All: claim has been presented for peer Understanding the Nature of review; who reviewed it; where This should help our students Science. it was published. There’s a big develop the sort of critical think- difference between information ing skills that they need to make The New Zealand Curriculum that’s been tested and reviewed, sense of the cornucopia of infor- (MoE, 2007) makes it clear that and information (or misinfor- mation that is the internet. View- there’s more to studying science mation) that simply represents ing a particular site, they should than simply accumulating facts: a particular point of view and be able to ask – and answer! – questions about the source of Science is a way of investigating, is promoted via the popular the information they’re finding, understanding, and explaining press. Think ‘cold fusion’, the our natural, physical world and claim that nuclear fusion could whether or not it’s been subject the wider universe. It involves be achieved in the lab at room to peer review (you could argue generating and testing ideas, temperatures. It was trumpeted that the internet is an excellent gathering evidence – including to the world by press release, ‘venue’ for peer review but all by making observations, carry- but subsequently debunked as too often it’s simply self-ref- ing out investigations and mod- other researchers tried, and erential), how it fits into our eling, and communicating and failed, to duplicate its findings. existing scientific knowledge, page 3 education and whether we need to know comparisons – nonetheless, the familiar with the concept of a anything else about the data or authors describe the differences fair test, so they’ll probably rec- its source. in growth as ‘significant’. ognise fairly quickly that such a test was not performed in this An excellent example that Their conclusion? Antibiotic case: the researchers were not could lead to discussion around resistance did not enhance the comparing apples with apples. both evolution and experimental fitness of Serratia marcescens: When one strain of the test or- design, in addition to the nature ... wild-type [S.marcescens] has ganism is lab-bred and not only of science, is the on-line article a significant fitness advantage antibiotic-resistant but forms Darwin at the drugstore: testing over the mutant strains due to different-coloured colonies from the biological fitness of antibi- its growth rate and colony size. the pond-dwelling wild-type, otic-resistant bacteria (Gillen & Therefore, it can be argued that there are a lot of different vari- Anderson, 2008). The research- ampicillin resistance mutations ables in play, not just the one ers wished to test the concept that reduce the growth rate and there- whose effects are supposedly fore the general biological fitness a mutation conferring antibiotic being examined. resistance rendered the bacte- ria possessing it less ‘fit’ than In addition, and more tellingly, those lacking it. (There is the experiment did not test the an energy cost to bacteria fitness of the antibiotic-resist- in producing any protein, ance gene in the environment but whether this renders where it might convey an them less fit – in the advantage. The two Ser- Darwinian sense – is ratia marcescens strains entirely dependent were not grown in media on context.) containing ampicillin! Evolutionary biology The researchers actually predicts that the used two popula- resistant strain would be tions of the bacterium at a disadvantage in mini- Serratia marcescens: mal media, because it’s an ampicillin-resistant using energy to express a lab-grown strain, which gene that provides no ben- produces white colonies, efit in that environment, and a pink, non-resistant so will likely be short of (‘wild-type’) population Serratia marcescens is a common bacterium of damp energy for other cellular obtained from pond wa- environments, responsible for the pink growths sometimes seen in bathrooms.

Load more

  24

Copy Link