Bad Science Journals Feel The Sting

Some people have a strong distrust of science, and yet others have a strong faith in science. Neither is good. Scientific research always needs to be looked at skeptically, thought about critically. A big part of my undergraduate education in Anthropology involved critiquing the science in published scientific articles. The ability to critically evaluate science, I believe, should be at the core of science education.

This is why "Peer Review," the practice of letting other expert scientists review and give feedback to a researcher before their paper is published, is such an important practice in the scientific community. This is a process that improves the paper that is published, and filters out bad science. But even flawed research can make it through this gauntlet, and the criticism and debate continues after publishing.

Popular Science recently announced that they were shutting down comments on their site because some comments from the general public can be bad for science. The uncivil and inflammatory comments were not critiquing the science and they were muddying the water.

But there is another trend in scientific publication muddying the water: a growing number of new journals that either don't do peer review or do a poor job of it. Kudos to John Bohannon who writes in Science today about the sting he conducted to root out a bunch of poor quality journals. A surprising number of the new breed of journals he submitted a bad paper to actually accepted it without catching some glaring flaws. When confronted with his findings, at least one journal was closed down by its parent company.

Above is a snapshot of a very cool interactive map showing the locations of the journals, or where there IP addresses were, or where their bank accounts were, which was often suspiciously obscured in the paper submission process. (Green indicates rejection, red represents acceptance of the bad paper).

Journalists who specialize in science often do a good job of thinking critically about the science they report. However, other journalists often do a poor job, even on respected news outlets. Just last week on NPR's Fresh Air Terri Gross showed her poor understanding of genetics/evolution with this question to her guest, Daniel Lieberman:

Oh. I see what you're saying. Because you've already reproduced, so any adaptation that you make as a result of the disease, it's too late to have an effect on reproduction.

Lieberman should have corrected her misunderstanding by explaining that you simply can't make adaptations to yourself. You have to be born with an adaptation.

The process at work is this: If you have a genetic trait that causes a disease, but it doesn't kill you before you reproduce, you will pass on that trait. Also, the people who adapt a trait that prevents that disease are not significantly more likely to reproduce. The trait doesn't have a significant impact on genetic fitness.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the 18th century biologist, famously theorized that organisms could acquire traits during their lifetime and pass them onto their offspring. This was eventually disproven by Mendelian genetics. This is a core concept in genetics and evolution.

However, Lieberman responds, "Yeah, well, this is an important topic, obviously." Perhaps he just wasn't listening closely, because he goes on to make another point entirely.


Clearly, we've got a long way to go when it comes to fostering critical thinking in science education and journalism. Scientists doing a better job of policing each other is a step in the right direction.

General Assailability: Last/Best Chance to kill Obamacare During Launch

General Availability (GA) - In traditional software life-cycle, this is the version of a software application that is released after beta testing is all done and the product goes live. I like to call it General Assailability. Now everyone can try out your product and criticize it.

Obamacare launched on October 1, and it was plagued with technical glitches. Should we have expected anything less? Health Insurance is extremely complex, there are multiple providers, a challenging deadline, and there are a huge number of captive end-users (they will be required by law to either purchase insurance or pay a fine). Technical problems were inevitable because the web sites are new. I would be more surprised if there were not glitches. But it definitely creates an opportunity to enemies of Obamacare to criticize it.

Is Obamacare just a victim of its own success? Those who actually learn about Obamacare find many reasons to like it, and once it is fully implemented, it may become too popular to fight. In fact, if it were brought to a vote in the House today, it might pass.

So, now is the time to fight it. Once the bugs are worked out and people see the benefits, it will be too late.

The New Glossophobia - Texting vs. Speaking Face-To-Face

Is there a risk of losing oral communication skills? I find it more difficult to communicate orally sometimes. A conversation can get off track and I might forget some of the points I had hoped to make. Laying it out in a letter, I can make sure I get my points across.

Walter Woodman may have some good points to think about in his movie, Noah. However, I still think he is likely missing something based on this quote:

"If you want a man to be honest, then give him a mask, turn the lights off, let nobody know who he is, and he doesn't have to worry about what you think about him... People are going to start to value honest connections more and more."

Catfish is a great example of masks not resulting in honesty. (There is even a Catfish TV show).

Using text can be an "easy" way to say difficult things without having to deal with someone's response. Sure, people will continue to break up by text message. Like a "Dear John" letter, you don't have to deal with the repercussions of that message, which could be ugly. You can then block the number...

But this strategy backfires when you will have an ongoing relationship with a person. In which case, you need to actually deal with someone's emotional response. You can't take the easy way out, because you can't get out.

When you will need to deal with an emotional response, this is more effectively done in person. Sensitive subjects require the ability to have a discourse, to read body language and other non-verbal communication. Emails and text messages can be misunderstood, and I have learned from experience to avoid email for certain kinds of messages.

Etiquette, and the complexity of human interaction may perpetuate a practice of in-person communication for some types of messages. It's hard to match the in-person approach for bonding and trust-building. Also, for delicate messages, like terminating employment (e.g., Up In The Air), in-person interaction may remain the best strategy.

If we lose the skill of face-to-face communication, we'll end up pissing a lot of people off, making enemies at work. We could lose a lot of friends and productivity because of it.

But there are also more tools for face-to-face communication. These video chat applications are very popular, too. I believe these will become more convenient to use (more cameras on monitors, etc). They may become a substitute for in-person communication, but I don't think face-to-face communication will go away.

We all have to go through a learning curve as we enter the workforce, but I don't think that we'll lose the skills of face-to-face communication. Those who are effective at work, and those who wish to be, will learn these skills, even if they do become a bit more rare, especially for new generations of workers fresh out of school.

Surface Pro 2 Unveiled

I'm just about ready to take the leap on a laptop replacement - but the Surface Pro 2 is not available quite yet. Snap a keyboard on, grab my lap desk, and I'll be ready to go.

This is one of the products I mentioned to Information Week last month.

If more women apply to STEM fields, will they get in?

More women are applying to competitive programs (i.e., lower acceptance rates) in college that result in low-paying jobs (English, Psychology). The Simpson Paradox (a statistical principal where an erroneous conclusion is made by aggregating the data too simply, and the true and contradictory conclusion is revealed by properly sub-grouping the aggregate data) has been invoked to indicate UC Berkely is not discriminating against women applicants. If this trend can be reversed, will the gap actually disappear between the overall acceptance rate of men vs. women?

iPhone 5S TouchID - Easy to Crack

Maybe using fingerprint access wasn't such a good idea for a touchscreen device... or for any device.

Fingerprint authentication is more convenient for users than passwords, and it held promise for making security easier for end-users. However, as discussed in a recent Fingerprint authentication can bypass an individual's Fifth Amendment rights.

Organizations might still have found fingerprint authentication to be a good choice, since many corporations will not hesitate to access employee's files and emails whey they feel it is warranted. However, that appears to be a non-starter as well since iPhone 5S's TouchID has already been cracked with easy to obtain materials:

Fingerprint resistant materials might be a way to counter this flaw, and this might be one applicaiton of Research into omniphobic materials. However, fingerprints have been a great tool for law enforcement because it is so hard to prevent leaving them everywhere. Can we really control our fingerprints sufficiently?

Maybe biometric security developers need to look for a biometric feature that the human body keeps as secure as the information we want to store electronically.

Update: More security woes for IOS, a backdoor to the lock screen via Siri. Disabling Siri on the lock screen is the recommended solution.

Cool Tech for Back-To-School

I was quoted in Information Week article on tech tools for college students going back to school. Items 4 (Tablet/Laptop Hybrids) and 5 (LinkedIn University Pages) are where I was quoted. I also suggested item 6 (Portable Power - rechargeable batteries with adapters to recharge your portable devices).