Skeptic Check: Check the Skeptics

Published: Oct. 26, 2015, 2:22 p.m.

One day, coffee is good for you; the next, it\u2019s not. And it seems that everything you eat is linked to cancer, according to research. But scientific studies are not always accurate. Insufficient data, biased measurements, or a faulty analysis can trip them up. And that\u2019s why scientists are always skeptical.\nHear one academic say that more than half of all published results are wrong, but that science still remains the best tool we have for learning about nature.\nAlso, a cosmologist points to reasons why science can never give us all the answers.\nAnd why the heck are scientists so keen to put a damper on spontaneous combustion?\nStudies discussed in this episode:\nChocolate and red wine aren\u2019t good for you after all\nThe Moon is younger than we thought\nGuests:\n\n\nJohn Ioannidis \u2013 Professor of medicine, health research and policy, and statistics, and co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford University. His paper, \u201cWhy Most Published Research Findings are False,\u201d was published in PLoS Medicine.\n\n\nMarcelo Gleiser \u2013 Physicist and astronomer at Dartmouth College, author of The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning\n\n\n\nJoe Schwarcz \u2013 \u2013 Professor of chemistry and Director of the Office for Science and Society, McGill University, Montreal and author of Is That a Fact?: Frauds, Quacks, and the Real Science of Everyday Life\n\n\nFirst released June 16, 2014.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices