Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

[MKG]

ROFLMAO - but how true!!!

[Rachel Squires]

ROFLMAO

Soz, still an uneducated newbie - please elaborate

Although I notice that I've just gained the rank of 'Tom'!

[MKG]

Rolling on the floor laughing my a**e off. Sorry - Netspeak!!!!!

[Brij]

This is going to sound supremely rubbish, but I'd love to have a job like that (a GIESJITSHTG or whatever it was!). I'm one of those people who happily trawls encyclopaedia for hours to find out how toilet cisterns work. Not that mine is broken, mind, I was just wondering.

So why am I learning French instead of Scientistese?

[Wombat]

Speaking as an outsider here who has now had contact with a number of insiders........the level of stupid bureaucracy in the UK appears to be at the point where I am amazed that any of you can acheive anything!

I will NEVER..........EVER..........complain about the bureaucratic idiots in Aus EVER AGAIN!

Nev

[Brij]

I will never ever complain about British bureaucracy again now that I've spent time in France! (nor British rail...)

[The Riff-Raff Element]

The philosophy point is a good one. I would suggest that teaching elements of philosophy - truth, certainty, requirements for proof, ethetics, methods of arguement, experimental design, etc - to spotty adolescents would probably be easier than giving them a thorough enough grounding in science to attack or question research with which they were presented.

They were very hot on philosophy for scientists when I was an oafish lump at university, though I've no idea what goes on these days.

[MKG]

Absolutely - so there's Module 1 of the new degree course.

Brij - anyone who can use the term encyclopaedia so correctly deserves a stab at the job

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Absolutely - so there's Module 1 of the new degree course.

Brij - anyone who can use the term encyclopaedia so correctly deserves a stab at the job

Hmmm...how about a "History of Science" module and another to be taught be John Humphreys about how to roast people alive.

We're going to need a title for the course - can we avoid something-studies?

Could be big!

[Rachel Squires]

Can we have a module on how to interact with scientists please? I pity the poor sod who has to get scientists to share anything. When I had my stint in the labs and also afterwards when I was selling to them, it never failed to amaze me how one lab could be really struggling to get to grips with a technique and the lab five doors down had the same technique honed to a fine art and yet they had no idea that each other existed, let alone that the were using the same techniques.

They guard their knowledge sooooo closely cos they compete so heavily to get their reseach published before anyone else that nine times out of ten, several groups are wasting funding doing the same science as each other without knowing it.

Same goes for officials. We bought some animals a few months ago and it turns out that the farm they came from has tested positive for TB so DEFRA wrote to us to ask for the location of the animals we had bought. Of course, they could've got the information much faster and efficiently by asking the BCMS (british cattle movement survey) who is also run by DEFRA - but they didn't. WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE TALK TO ONE ANOTHER!!!

[MKG]

Module 1 - Philosophy of Evidence.
Module 2 - History of Science (with special emphasis on the number of scientists who have spouted off in a premature and unfortunate manner).
EDIT: Module 3 - Basic Communication (with subsidiary course on spelling)

Yes - the name of the course is a good point. Thinking ...


Andy and Dave - If you move to Milton Keynes (but then, who would?) there's a chance of opening the University of Ish with a startingly original new course.

[MKG]

Module 4 - Advanced Communication (Sub-module A - Bullsh*t Detection)

[Rachel Squires]

EDIT: Module 3 - Basic Communication (with subsidiary course on spelling)

was that aimed at me?

I have sticky keys - I blame it on eating food as I work

Also Lily marches all over my laptop demanding attention a lot.

Also I'm a c**p speller!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Could we have just a LITTLE bit of chemistry in it? I'm a chemist and the way things are headed there's going to be practically no UK universities teaching the subjcet (too expensive), so I could offer a module in "sorting out wildly overcomplicated and unnecessarily duplicitous chemical terminology."

[ina]

Can we have a module on how to interact with scientists please? I pity the poor sod who has to get scientists to share anything. When I had my stint in the labs and also afterwards when I was selling to them, it never failed to amaze me how one lab could be really struggling to get to grips with a technique and the lab five doors down had the same technique honed to a fine art and yet they had no idea that each other existed, let alone that the were using the same techniques.

They guard their knowledge sooooo closely cos they compete so heavily to get their reseach published before anyone else that nine times out of ten, several groups are wasting funding doing the same science as each other without knowing it.

You are right - but that's not so much the fault of the scientists. These days where there is no more money for research unless there's direct financial gain at the end, everybody has to guard their results - otherwise they can say goodbye to their jobs. A very sad situation, and not relished by any scientists/researchers I know.

Unless it becomes commonly accepted that independent research - and fundamental research, too, not just applied! - is in the public interest, and gets funded by public money, this situation won't change. But tell that to the average tax payer...