Many headline scientific findings in recent years have turned out to be false. They can’t be reproduced—and if you can’t reproduce a result, it isn’t science. The headlines are just the tip of the iceberg. A huge amount of ordinary scientific findings published in peer-reviewed journals doesn’t replicate. Something has gone terribly wrong in contemporary scientific procedures.
Science’s failure is called the “Irreproducibility Crisis.” It is the result of improper use of statistics, arbitrary research techniques, lack of accountability, political groupthink, and a scientific culture biased toward producing positive results. By some estimates, half of recent scientific research could be irreproducible.
In this video, Dr. Patrick J. Michaels (Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute) discusses “Biased Climate Science.”
This session is from the conference, “Fixing Science: Practical Solutions for the Irreproducibility Crisis,” co-sponsored by the National Association of Scholars and the Independent Institute, and held February 7-8, 2020, at Independent’s conference center in Oakland, CA.