Editing Pathological science (section)

{{Short description|Area of research which persists despite being widely discredited}}
{{for|the genuine medical science|Pathology}}

'''Pathological science''' is an area of research where "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, [[wishful thinking]] or threshold interactions."<ref name="Langmuir1953">Irving Langmuir, "Colloquium on Pathological Science," held at the Knolls Research Laboratory, December 18, 1953. A recording of the actual talk was made, but apparently lost, though a recorded transcript was produced by Langmuir a few months later. A [http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/Langmuir/langmuir.htm transcript is available] on the Web site of Kenneth Steiglitz, Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University. But see also: I. Langmuir, "Pathological Science", General Electric, (Distribution Unit, Bldg. 5, Room 345, Research and Development Center, P.O. Box 8, Schenectady, NY 12301), 68-C-035 (1968); I. Langmuir, "[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1989PhT....42j..36L&amp;db_key=PHY&amp;data_type=HTML&amp;format=&amp;high=42ca922c9c20135 Pathological Science]", (1989) ''Physics Today'', Volume 42, Issue 10, October 1989, pp. 36–48</ref><ref>"Threshold interaction" refers to a phenomenon in statistical analysis where unforeseen relationships between input variables may cause unanticipated results. For example, see [http://spitswww.uvt.nl/~avdrark/vvs/voorjaar2005.html Dusseldorp, Voorjaarsbijeenkomst 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724172132/http://spitswww.uvt.nl/~avdrark/vvs/voorjaar2005.html |date=2011-07-24 }}</ref> The term was first used by [[Irving Langmuir]], [[Nobel Prize]]-winning [[chemist]], during a 1953 [[wikt:colloquium|colloquium]] at the [[Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory|Knolls Research Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/Langmuir/langmuir.htm | title=Langmuir's talk on Pathological Science | publisher=Princeton University Department of Computer Science | access-date=3 September 2013}}</ref> Langmuir said a pathological science is an area of research that simply will not "go away"—long after it was given up on as "false" by the majority of scientists in the field. He called pathological science "the science of things that aren't so."<ref name=Park2000>{{cite book| last = Park| first = Robert| author-link = Robert L. Park| year = 2000| title = Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud| page = [https://archive.org/details/voodooscienceroa00park/page/41 41]| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn=0198604432| title-link = Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud }}</ref><ref>Langmuir's contribution followed the first edition (1952) of [[Martin Gardner]]'s book ''[[Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science]]'' (Dover, 1957). Gardner cited especially the "magnificent collection of crank literature" in the [[New York Public Library]].</ref>

In his 2002 book, ''Undead Science'', sociology and anthropology Professor Bart Simon lists it among practices that are falsely perceived or presented to be science, "categories ... such as ... [[pseudoscience]], [[Citizen science|amateur science]], deviant or fraudulent science, bad science, [[junk science]], pathological science, [[cargo cult science]], and [[voodoo science]]."<ref>Simon, Bart. ''Undead Science: Science Studies and the Afterlife of Cold Fusion'' (2002) {{ISBN|0813531543}}. Simon refers to: [[Thomas F. Gieryn|Gieryn, Thomas F.]], ''Cultural Boundaries of Science: Credibility on the Line'' (1999) [[University of Chicago Press]], {{ISBN|0226292622}}</ref> Examples of pathological science include the [[Martian canals]], [[N ray|N-rays]], [[polywater]], and [[cold fusion]]. The theories and conclusions behind all of these examples are currently rejected or disregarded by the majority of scientists.