ChatGPT is a sophisticated AI program that generates text from vast databases. But it doesn’t understand the information it produces, which also can’t be verified through scientific means.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Scientific method
Displaying 1 - 20 of 83 articles
The assumption that more detail is better is questioned by a new study.
Peer review of research sounds like it should be a conversation between equals. Instead, it can be patronizing, demanding and simply unkind. A group of journal editors thinks this should change.
New research found that consumers were less likely to buy a product associated with pleasure if marketers emphasized it was developed with science.
Scientists need to be good at asking questions, investigating the world to find answers, and keeping in mind that no matter how much they know, there’s always more to learn.
One of the most famous stats in the climate debate is the 97% of scientists who endorse the consensus on human-induced global heating. Ahead of the Glasgow summit, that figure has climbed even higher.
Before the pandemic, the public perceived science as infallible and inaccessible. But the opening up of research to the general public has changed that perception.
Ambiguous language and a rush to judgment have defined the debate about mātauranga and science. It’s time to slow down and stop talking past each other.
Politicians are throwing billions of dollars at coronavirus vaccine trials, but the real cost of research is the one thing we’re lacking – time.
Researchers, scientific journals and health agencies are doing everything they can to speed up coronavirus research. The combination of pace and panic during this pandemic is causing mistakes.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics pays tribute to randomized control trials, but can they really help us fight poverty?
Researchers rarely collect information that lets them to compare their results with what was believed beforehand. If they did, it could help spot new or important findings more readily.
Across science, only around half of published results can be successfully replicated. But while this is a serious problem, the proposed public audit looks like a political bid to cast doubt on science.
A new study has found a link between being born by caesarean section and having a greater chance of being diagnosed with autism or ADHD. But there’s no evidence caesarean sections cause them.
Some people argue the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, you just need to keep looking. But there are occasions where finding no evidence is all you can do.
Rising evidence shows that many psychology studies don’t stand up to added scrutiny. The problem has many scientists worried – but it could also encourage them to up their game.
Two prestigious journals have suggested abandoning the traditional test of the strength of a study’s results. But a statistician worries that this would make science worse.
What is proof? In both law and science, it’s basically a consensus of experts – but they work at very different speeds. That means juries may reach verdicts on an issue before the science is settled.
An evolutionary biologist makes the case that there’s no reconciling science and religion. In the search for truth, one tests hypotheses while the other relies on faith.
Science is in a reproducibility crisis. This is driven in part by invalid statistical analyses that happen long after the data are collected – the opposite of how things are traditionally done.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Education; Curriculum Director, UQ Critical Thinking Project, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University
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ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSW Sydney
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Laureate Professor of Mathematics, University of Newcastle
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Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash University
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Laureate Professor, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
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Professor, School of Psychology, University of Sydney
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Professor, School of Biosciences & School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
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Merlin Crossley is a Friend of The Conversation.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality and Professor of Molecular Biology, UNSW Sydney
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Professor of Management & Organizations; Professor of Environment & Sustainability; Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
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Associate Professor of Physics, Union College
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University Distinguished Professor and Department Head of Statistics, Texas A&M University
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Professor in Philosophy, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Auckland
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Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response, UNSW Sydney
