A collection of indisputable facts for these days, when the facts are under siege
The editors of the international edition of Scientific American, The article is published with the approval of Scientific American Israel and the Ort Israel network 29.12.2016
- in election campaigns, Like the one held in the USA in 2016, the small but vocal groups that flatly refuse to recognize the scientific consensus on certain issues tend to be even more vocal.
- In this period of "post-truth", we thought it appropriate to present the arguments based on some well-founded scientific truths - but for some reason controversial in certain circles.
- You are invited to use this series of articles as a brief guide in debating with opponents of science.
Scientific truths are always temporary to some extent. We used to think that the continents were fixed in place on the earth; Today we know that they move. In the past we thought the universe was static; Today we know that it is spreading. We used to think that margarine is better for health than butter and that hormone therapy is in many cases the right treatment for women after menopause; Today we know that this is not the case.
However, even if scientists do not know everything, they know a great deal. Because of this, and especially in the current political atmosphere, it is depressing to see how many people, including politicians, outright reject without any justifiable reason some of the basic truths, based on solid evidence, on which modern science is founded.
Normally, we report here on the latest developments in scientific and technological research, but we thought it would be appropriate to take a step back and discuss some of the well-established scientific facts. In fact, in the scientific community these facts are indisputable, based on verifiable evidence and accepted as scientific truths for decades, and which are repeatedly confirmed as more and more new evidence supporting them accumulates.
Psychological research teaches us that such an accumulation of evidence can only harden the position of those who deny the truth, and we have no pretense that the series of articles presented here will solve the problem. However, we believe that it is our duty to draw attention to the fact that even in the constantly developing and advancing world of science there are some basic facts whose truth is not in doubt.
Evolution is the only logical explanation for the variety of life forms on Earth
by Michael Shermer
On January 14, 1844, Charles Darwin wrote Letter to his friend the botanist Joseph Hawker and in it he reminisced about the research trip he made around the world aboard the British Navy ship "Beagle". After spending five years sailing the seas and devoting the next seven years to studying the question of the origin of species, Darwin came to this conclusion: "At last I had an epiphany, and I have almost no doubt (contrary to what I first thought) that species are not (and what I am about to say as an admission of murder) immutable changeable."
"As a confession to murder." Dramatic words indeed. And not for nothing were they said. No need to be a rocket engineer, either naturalist English, to understand why a theory that explains the “The origin of the species by way of natural investigation” be so controversial. If new species are created naturally, and not in a supernatural way, what is God's place in the picture? No wonder even today, after one hundred and fifty years, the theory is still so threatening to those who hold any religious belief. However, in the years that have passed since then, scientists have found so much evidence supporting the theory that it would be very surprising if it turns out to be incorrect - no less surprising than if the theory that bacteria cause disease is disproved or if astrophysicists are forced to abandon the big bang model for the formation of the universe. why? Because the accumulated evidence in different fields of research and different research methods converges to a conclusion that leaves no room for doubt.
For example, based on comparing the findings of studies conducted in the fields of population genetics, geography, ecology, archaeology, physical anthropology and linguistics, scientists discovered that from a genetic point of view, the aborigines In Australia, people are much closer to natives of South Asia than to blacks in Africa - and this also makes sense from the evolutionary point of view, since the ancient migration routes of human populations out of Africa led to Asia and from there, to Australia.
The different dating methods, which consistently yield similar results, also support the correctness of the theory. Uranium-lead dating, rubidium-strontium dating and potassium-argon dating, for example, which are used to determine the age of rocks and fossils, all give more or less the same value. With these methods, the age of the rocks and fossils is determined as an estimate, but the margin of error is not greater than one percent. And so, it is not possible for one scientist to date a particular fossil of Hominin About 1.2 million years old, while another scientist would determine that it is only 10,000 years old.
Not only the consistent dating of fossils indicates the correctness of the theory. When examining fossils, it is possible to distinguish intermediate stages in the development of different species, evidence that opponents of the theory of evolution are still not ready to accept. Today, following the discovery of a series of transitional fossils, at least six intermediate stages are known in the development of whales, e.g. Moreover, until now more than a dozen fossils of hominins have been discovered, from the period after their split from the chimpanzees six million years ago, some of which were probably transitional fossils between the hominins and modern man. And the findings obtained in different geological layers point repeatedly to the same sequence of fossils. between The trilobites Mammals are separated by millions of years, so the discovery of a horse fossil and a trilobite fossil in the same geological layer, or, if we take an even more extreme example, a hominin fossil and a dinosaur fossil in the same layer, could have been problematic in terms of evolutionary theory, but this never happened.
And finally, organs vestiges Degenerates are evidence of evolutionary history. to the ancient serpent of sorts Pachyrhachis problematicus Bene of the Cretaceous period were small hind limbs that appear in their degenerate form in most modern snakes. In the whales of our time, a tiny hip pelvis has been preserved that originally connected the spine to the hind limbs of their ancestors, the land mammals. Similarly, flightless birds have wings. And of course, there are many degenerate organs left in the human body that are of no use, clear evidence of our evolutionary origin, such as wisdom teeth, nipples in men, body hair, the appendix andSting bone [known as the coccyx].
And as noted by the renowned geneticist and evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky [in his famous article from 1973], "There is nothing logical in biology except in the light of the theory of evolution".
The author – Michael Shermer He is the publisher of the journal Skeptic, the columnist The voice of the skeptic at Scientific American and winner of the President's Scholarship at Chapman University in California. His latest book, which was published in January 2015, is The Moral Arc. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelshermer.
Homeopathy has no scientific basis
By Harriet Hall
Homeopathy is a medical approach that claims to treat diseases using tiny doses of substances that, in high doses, would cause symptoms of the disease in a healthy person. This approach is based on the erroneous and unscientific idea conceived by one man, a German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann, who laid the foundations for homeopathy at the beginning of the 19th century.
Homeopathy is not effective as a medical treatment and in no way can it be effective. Its principles do not agree with the basic principles known to us from the fields of physics, chemistry and biology. 19th century American physician and writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, exposed the folly of homeopathy as early as 1842 in his article "Homeopathy and similar hallucinations". He was horrified to learn that anyone still believed in her today in 2016.
Only a few of the consumers of homeopathy have ever bothered to investigate what is the nature of the homeopathic preparations they are taking or what are the strange ideas hidden behind them. The simplest way to explain the homeopathic method is through this example: if coffee wakes you up, diluted coffee will bring you down, and the more diluted the coffee, the stronger its effect. (The water will in some way preserve the coffee grounds that are no longer dissolved in them.) If you pour the coffee-free water on a sugar pill and let it evaporate, the coffee grounds will be transferred to the sugar pill and the pill will bring relief from insomnia.
If any of these things make sense to you, you should start getting worried.
After all, it is unthinkable that someone would buy a drug that does not have any active ingredients, but it turns out that there is a demand for such drugs. a preparation named Oscillocoxinum, intended for the treatment and relief of flu and cold symptoms, is sold in most pharmacies in the US; Its annual sales volume is estimated at about 15 million dollars. The preparation is named after a bacterium that the French doctor Joseph Roa found in his imagination in blood tests of flu patients as well as in duck liver; No one but him had ever seen such bacteria. On the packaging of the product it is written that the active ingredient is Anas barbariae 200 CK HPUS - in simple words, the extract (heart and liver) of a species of duck Barbourit, diluted in a dilution ratio of 1 to 100, whereupon the preparation of the preparation was repeated the process of diluting the extract 200 times and after each dilution the extract was "shaken" (not mixing, but vigorous shaking). Every chemistry student can calculate and find, with the help of Avogadro's number, that after the 13th dilution, the chance that the preparation will contain a single molecule of the duck extract is 50%. After 200 dilutions, no trace of the duck will remain. And what we get will be Idol drug worthless
It is unbelievable how stupid are the methods by which homeopaths write prescriptions. They present their patients with a long series of irrelevant questions (What color are your eyes? What foods do you dislike? What scares you?). And they rely on two sources of information. one is theDirectory And in it the details of the preparations offered as a cure for every possible symptom - for example, parasensory perception (yes, this is also considered a symptom), caries and "tear drops" (so in the original). The other source of information is Materia Medica, and next to each homeopathic preparation appears the list of symptoms associated with it. Thus, as a cure for fears, called "dreams about robbers", the book suggests using cooking salt! Yes, it's not a mistake, all that needs to be done is to dilute table salt, and if so, almost anything you can think of can be used as a remedy. Some of my favorite preparations are: powder from the stones of the Berlin Wall, moonlight during a white eclipse, dog ear wax and the south pole of a magnet. The phenomenon is absurd, but according to the estimate, about five million adults and about a million children use homeopathic medicines every year in the US alone, and in most cases the medicines are purchased at the pharmacy independently, without a prescription.
Admittedly, there are studies published on the subject that claim that homeopathy works, and you can find studies that support almost every claim, but the in-depth scientific tests of all the research knowledge in this field all show that there is nothing real in homeopathy and that it has no medical benefit beyond that of treatment with dummy drugs (placebo). And so they wrote Edzard Ernst, retired professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter in England and author Simon Singh in their book Healing or seduction: "The evidence shows that this is a lie and false industry that offers patients an illusion and nothing else."
The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits the sale of homeopathic preparations in effect Clause honoring possession, which excludes these preparations from all preparations that require proof of effectiveness, but these days the FDA is considering changes to the regulations. I would like the FDA to require a label attached to every homeopathic preparation with the words: "Does not contain any active ingredient. For entertainment purposes only." The fact that homeopathy still exists and thrives indicates that the general public lacks the ability to think critically. Many times people use homeopathic preparations of various kinds instead of effective medicines, vaccines or anti-malarial treatments, and the results are disastrous and sometimes even fatal.
Homeopathy was a false charm as early as 1842, and even today there is no truth in it, except that today we already have to understand it better.
Editors note: November 2016, after writing the article, the US Federal Trade Commission announced that the labeling on the packaging of homeopathic products sold without a prescription must make it clear to buyers that their effectiveness as drugs is not scientifically proven.
Author Harriet Hall She is a retired family doctor who writes about medicine, alternative medicine, pagan medicine and quackery, science, and critical thinking. She is one of the founders of the blog Science-based medicine and a member of his editorial team, colleague BCommittee for Skeptical Researchand a member of the management of theAssociation for Science-Based Medicine.
The global warming conspiracy - a delusional connection theory
By Ray Fairhumbert
I am always amazed anew to discover that there are people who have convinced themselves that the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming, i.e. caused by humans, is nothing more than a large-scale organized conspiracy designed to undermine the very essence of the American way of life, impose socialism on the innocent masses or ... feel free to add any ideas here Illusory that will come to your mind.
If this is indeed a conspiracy, it is a very impressive conspiracy, nearly two hundred years old, involving the scientific communities of dozens of countries around the world. The French physicist laid the foundations for everything we know today about the temperature of the planets Joseph Fourier In the 20s of the 19th century. In his studies Fourier proved that the temperature of a planet depends on the balance between the energy the planet receives from the sun and the energy it emits back into space in infrared radiation. The basic idea conceived by Fourier gained quantitative expression in the half of the 19th century, in the theory of radiation Black bodydeveloped by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann and his contemporary the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The physicist born in Ireland John Tyndalladded carbon dioxide to the equation at the end of the 19th century, when he showed that it captures infrared radiation, and not long after, the Swedish chemist completed Svante Arrhenius The assembly of all the pieces of the puzzle into one complete picture.
During the 20th century, scientific knowledge on these topics increased and developed. A comprehensive theory that takes into account the various relevant factors, including carbon dioxide andThe contribution of water vapor For the greenhouse effect, rudder Syukuro Manaba When he worked in the 60s and 70s at the Geophysical Laboratory for the Study of Fluid Dynamics of the American Meteorological Service (NOAA). Since then we have learned a lot more in this area, but Manaba did a good job of articulating his basic principles. The principles that allow us to understand the connection between greenhouse gases and global warming are the same principles that also allowed us to develop heat-guided missiles, meteorological satellites and remote controls operating in the infrared range. Imagine what a conspiracy is needed to fake all this.
An even more extensive and sophisticated conspiracy would have been required to falsify all the changes in the Earth's climate that the theory predicted and that scientists are observing in practice: an increase in the average global temperature, a rise in sea level, the shrinking of the ice sheet at the poles, the melting of glaciers, an increase in heat waves and their lengthening, and more. And if that wasn't enough, the linkers would also have to memorize all the historical climatic data that teaches us that there is no magic mechanism (the clouds, for example, or any other phenomenon) that has the power to save us from the warming effect of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere in combination with the water vapor found in it – A process supported by solid evidence. Moreover, it was up to the plotters to "fabricate" the observations pointing to the warming of the deep water in the oceans - which provide evidence that the source of the energy that warms the earth's surface is not in the oceans. (According to the law of conservation of energy, if the oceans were causing the earth's surface to warm, they would cool in response. This is not a unique property, but one of the basic conservation laws of physics!) The same is true for the data we have regarding the distribution of isotopes of carbon andThe carbon budget, which prove that the origin of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere is indeed from deforestation and the burning of mineral fuels. And we still haven't talked about the observed relationship between cooling The stratosphere and between warming up the troposphere, the characteristics of the effect that carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases have on the atmosphere.
We can go on and on like this. This is a huge body of knowledge and data that would have had to be falsified if it was indeed a conspiracy - and in this case, faking the moon landing would pale in comparison.
Science rewards those who overturn accepted theories (think quantum theory versus classical mechanics), so the fact that the basic theory explaining anthropogenic global warming has stood and still stands the test, despite all the claims made against it since it was first proposed in its modern version in the 60s, says Very much. Global warming is a problem, and we humans caused it. The same is true even if Donald Trump thinks differently. Doubting the existence of the problem has no place in a logical and balanced discourse.
The author Ray Fairhumbert He is a professor in the Halle Chair of Physics at the University of Oxford.
Vaccines do not cause autism
By Paul Offitt
It has been almost 20 years since an article published in the medical journal The Lancet gave rise to the idea that vaccines cause autism. In the years since then, more than 20 studies have disproved the claim, and the article has been deleted from the journal's archives.
In the end, the time and money spent researching the hypothesis of a link between vaccines and autism was not in vain. First, the media channels once again do not spread the story under the false assumption of balance and once again do not return to their justification on the mantra that both sides deserve to be represented - when only one of them is supported by scientific evidence. Today it is clear that this is an unfounded claim made by a dubious doctor whose name has been forever tarnished because of it. Second, most parents no longer believe that vaccines cause autism. According to a recent study, 85% of parents of children with autism do not think that vaccines caused it.
Unfortunately, despite the mountains of evidence disproving any link between vaccines and autism, there are still parents, albeit a small number, who believe that vaccines can cause autism. Refraining from vaccinating their children not only endangers the children, but also weakens "herd immunity", which curbs the spread of diseases in the population. There are several possible reasons that explain their position.
One of these is that the cause or causes of autism are still unknown - a similar situation prevailed regarding diabetes in the 19th century, when no one knew what caused it or how it could be treated. At that time, various hypotheses were put forward regarding the causes of diabetes and far-reaching suggestions were made for its cure, even at the cost of risking my life the patients The turning point happened whenFrederick Banting וCharles Best Insulin was discovered in 1921, and all these strange and false ideas disappeared. Until it becomes clear what causes autism and a cure is found, it will be difficult to uproot the claim that vaccines cause autism.
Another possible reason is that it is easier to accept the idea that vaccines cause autism - certainly much easier than dealing with the findings of studies that teach a genetic basis for autism. If autism is caused by events outside the womb, parents can control the condition to some extent. If it is a genetic disorder, it is out of their control.
And people are always looking for a scapegoat. And what is simpler and more convenient than pointing an accusing finger at the black forces that cause autism, especially if these are the large and influential pharmaceutical companies or all-powerful governments. as per The conspiracy theories, the research findings showing that vaccines do not cause autism are the fruit of an international conspiracy aimed at hiding the truth. And although this opinion is prevalent only among a small group of parents, their vocal position is overrepresented on the Internet.
And finally, parents of children with autism often do not notice any problems in the children's development during the first 12 months of their lives. Then, after a series of vaccinations at around one year of age, it becomes clear to them that their child is not developing according to the speech, language, behavior and communication development stages typical of the second year of life. In fact, studies that examined videos documenting the children in their first year of life show that even during that time their development was not normal. But as far as the parents were concerned, everything was fine.
In any case, the controversy regarding the connection between vaccines and autism also has an encouraging aspect, which is the mobilization of academics and medicine, public health officials, and parents to present the scientific truth that exonerates vaccines from any blame and to disseminate it in all media, via the Internet, through the airwaves, and in print. Thanks to their efforts, the trend was reversed, and today the voice of parents who are angry at those of their friends who choose not to vaccinate their children, thus endangering the entire child population, is heard more and more.
The public outcry for the right to vaccines gained momentum following the outbreak of the measles epidemic in the USA in 2015. It started in the Disney theme park in Southern California and from there it spread and infected 189 people, mostly children, in 24 states in the USA and the city of Washington. Unfortunately, the virus got the message across the best. And always, it is the children who reluctantly pay the price of our ignorance, the adults.
The author Paul Offitt He is a professor of pediatrics in the Department of Infectious Diseases and head of the Center for Immunization Education at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
There is no reliable evidence of alien visits to Earth
by Seth Shostak
Millions of people in the US claim to have been abducted by aliens. This is what the Washington Post reported in an article from 2013. This is certainly an impressive feat for aliens. And yet, so far the reaction of the American administration has been rather lukewarm. And from this we must conclude that one of the two: either the federal government does not believe that events of this type occur or it has a hand in the matter.
Many people believe that the second option is correct. According to them, the administration knows that aliens have landed on Earth, but it hides the evidence of this under a heavy veil of secrecy inRegion 51 Or on some other top secret site.
But wait a minute.
Unless the aliens prefer Americans (and if we put nationalistic feelings aside for a moment, then why would they behave that way?), then the rate of abductions around the world should be quite similar to the rate in the USA. If we assume that these are aliens without borders, then tens of millions of people around the world were supposed to be abducted by the gray skinned ones. You would expect the UN to notice this. I think you would notice that too.
Abductions are, of course, only one component of the so-called UFO phenomenon. The evidence is mostly based on observations - eyewitness reports, photographs and videos. Most of them can be explained by the fact that they document airplanes, missiles, balloons, bright stars or, sometimes, pranks. Some of them remain unexplained to this day, but this means, simply, that they have no explanation, not that they are flying saucers, even if the eyewitnesses who reported them are convinced of this beyond any doubt. We do not have any scientifically based evidence of extraterrestrial visits to our planet, either recently or in the distant past. the pyramids, takeoff lines in Peru and all the other traces left behind by humans throughout the ages and attributed toAncient astronauts that came to us from outer space can be attributed with no less certainty and plausibility to human activity.
In fact, only a small number of scientists or science museum curators believe that the claim that aliens drop by for a visit from time to time is plausible. Even if we ignore for a moment the enormous technical challenges involved in interstellar travel, the question arises: what are they looking for here right now? The human race began to transmit signals to space indicating its existence only since the development of television and radar. Unless the aliens come from a star system very close to the Earth, it is doubtful if they had the opportunity to learn about our existence and if they would be enough to reach us in such a short period of time. And even if such extraterrestrial beings could fly at the speed of light (no way), the distance of their home planet from Earth could not be greater than 35 light years, more or less - and there are not too many stars that are that close to us. Beyond that, flying through space at such record speeds consumes enormous amounts of energy. Would you be willing to spend a fortune just to have a little fun in sport hominin fishing using the "catch and release"?
In any case, public opinion polls consistently show, for decades, that roughly a third of the population believes that our world hosts tourists from outer space. And if, despite the lack of reliable evidence, you also insist on believing this, you must at least admit that these are exemplary guests. They don't kill us, they don't cause riots in our streets and they don't disappear with the towels... Roswell incident It happened almost 70 years ago. If aliens have visited here since then, they certainly deserve a medal for good behavior.
The author Seth Shostak He is a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, a non-profit organization engaged in the study of the nature of extraterrestrial life. He also serves as co-presenter of the weekly radio show Big Picture Science.
20 תגובות
I have no doubt that intelligent extraterrestrials have arrived and are coming to us. The writer uses an insult to justify what he wrote and ignores billions of people who believe it. If in a hundred years the human race managed to develop things that are a miracle of creation in our eyes and if we showed it to people 300 years ago they would have thought we were aliens, mobile phones with a touch screen, spaceships, electric cars, television, supercomputers, internet, artificial intelligence, vaccines, space telescopes And on and on and on, so there is no reason that in 1000 years the human race will not be able to achieve such achievements if we do destroy ourselves because we are a species of gods. The fact that they came and did not harm us or destroy us as the author writes in his article, does not indicate that they did not come, it is only that they are much smarter than us and more intelligent and do not see the need for violence for any issue such as the human race. Apparently it is possible otherwise and there are probably species that think differently than us. We don't accept each other because of the difference in skin color, even in the simple things we are violent and racist, but that does not mean that in all the universes and galaxies there are no different from us for better or for worse and to think that we are the center of everything is a mistake and the smartest is a mistake and those with the most impressive achievements in science and that it is impossible to achieve more It's a mistake, but it's typical of the failed, violent and racist human race for the most part. This is a fact! Otherwise there would be no wars, and racist statements every day, and genocide, and the Holocaust
The future redemption will be universal and inclusive. Concepts such as: violence, corruption, evil and the like will disappear from the landscape of human society. Brotherhood, peace and evil will take their place. In those days the nation of Israel will reach its perfection. The exiles of the people will be gathered to their land from the four corners of the earth, and in it the people will fulfill all the Torah mitzvot out of peace. In the era of redemption, each individual will reach the peak of the redemption of his soul, when envy, lust and selfishness will disappear completely from the horizon, and people will only pursue goodness and kindness. It will not be surprising, therefore, that faith in this future instills optimism and peace in the hearts of those who believe in it, and the future also radiates its good spirit on the present. At the same time, the expectation of the coming of the Messiah should be done with intelligence and understanding and from a deep faith. Sages gave us signs that would herald the coming of redemption. The sages of Israel, first and last, expanded the canvas on this plane. Many of these times have already passed in our many sins, and we have not yet been redeemed. It is important to emphasize that these times were determined subject to various conditions that limit the coming of the end. Only when these conditions are met, the days of Messiah will arrive, which we are so looking forward to. It is true that the last exact time of redemption, a time called "the purpose of the end", is closed and sealed, but there is a time, which is explained in the Sages and is visible and known to all, that redemption will come before it! Sages said that for six thousand years the world will exist, and in the seventh millennium it will be destroyed. Of course, redemption and the Messiah will come before the world is destroyed. The time that has passed, therefore, for the "Aikbata Damshikha" (footsteps of the Messiah), a period that will precede the coming of the Messiah, is at the latest a little before the end of the last millennium of the world's existence. At the same time, the Sages revealed to us in advance details about the spiritual decline of our time, and thus they said: "Following Mashiach Khotsafa will rise... young men will whitewash the faces of old men, old men will stand up against young ones, a son will stand up to a father, a daughter will stand up to her mother and a daughter will stand up to her mother-in-law, the face of the generation is like the face of a dog." The detail that characterizes the phenomenon is that the intensity will increase to dimensions that were not known until now. In previous generations, everyone behaved in an earthly way and with respect towards the elders of the people and its sages. On the other hand, today all fences and reservations have been breached. The destruction of the accepted and sacred frameworks from generation to generation, both in public life and in individual life, has become a common thing. The audacity, the fierceness and the rebellion increased and became prouder in our generation without limit. Anyone who is more insolent and bolder than his friend, becomes a leader. It is worth noting: in the first period of the formation of modern culture, many believed that it would create a society with a high moral and humane level, which would remain anchored within the framework of religious belief. The designers of this culture did not imagine in their "darkest" dreams that it would lead to such a drastic spiritual decline. It was not possible to foresee that at the end of the sixth millennium there would be a general disintegration of faith and religion, a disintegration that would result in the breaking of social barriers and the destruction of every sacred place, to the point of turning it into a mockery and blasphemy. These words of prophecy indicate and signal that we are approaching the end of days, a time when a new light will illuminate the darkness of life.
Very nice to find supporting articles that I didn't know about
https://www.hayadan.org.il/new-research-finds-that-immune-protein-helps-brain-development-3005173
To my father
Regarding the placebo
The thing you forgot to emphasize for some reason is that defining any substance as a drug depends on proving that it is
More useful than a placebo, otherwise the tested substance should not be marketed as a medicine. Therefore homeopathy, if as you claim
A placebo is less useful than a designated drug.
The danger is that those who take a placebo instead of medicine, may be seriously harmed by the lack of appropriate treatment for their illness.
The sentence you wrote: "The very knowledge of the patient that he is being treated and that he has received medicine... already cures a significant and definite percentage of the patients." It is not supported by any evidence in the passage you wrote, how many percent of the patients with the clarification type for example (it can be cured with a simple antibiotic and there is also a vaccine) were cured with homeopathy or "just" a placebo?!
To my father
A. I do not believe that aliens have visited or are visiting the earth, if only for the simple reason that any culture that surpasses its surroundings leaves a tangible presence that is not subject to dispute (so as far as I know, it is possible that the aliens behave differently and this still requires proof). But the talk (as delusional as it may be) about aliens began a little before Jules Warren: "..and the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were good, and they took them wives of whomever they chose..." (Genesis chapter XNUMX). It is natural that the Holy Spirit, as is his way in the Holy, will make it unclean and the children of God outsiders.
B. In the matter of Schechtman and Paulnig. The author of the opening remarks in the article also mentioned that science was often wrong
And wiser people than me have already said that science advances from companion to companion (when leading but fixed scientists give way
to the younger ones), the question is how thoroughly tested and "attacked" was the theory that is being tested. A comparison of the theory of evolution to crystal quasars is not exactly "symmetrical", the crystal quasars were of no interest to anyone outside the community
A small scientist in the field. Evolution is a completely different story.
One day we wake up and find that we long to be freed from a victim perception. So we realize that we are responsible for the design of our lives, and the immediate meaning of this is that we really choose the circumstances of our lives, really want them exactly as they are. It can sound really annoying and outrageous! Because the deep meaning of this will be the fact that we will no longer be able to complain about what we have, the fact that we will no longer be able to believe that we are dangerous. We not only choose life now, but have always chosen it; Both the family, both the body and the circumstances of life as a whole.
The decisiveness is at the opinion of the author of the article only.
And I also have no problem with 1,2, 5 and XNUMX as conspiracy theories that I would be happy if they were removed from the world. There are also more of the chemtrails of the flat earth, Pibrook, the moon landing, and many more nonsense that can be found on YouTube.
But unfortunately the vaccine craze is not all nonsense. Let it be clear that I am vaccinated and so are all my children and the claim that vaccination at the age of one causes autism is not true!
The placenta is not a hermetic filter and there are stages during the development of the fetus in which there is a migration of cells and this migration uses the signals of the immune system. Aggressive activation of the immune system (as the mother's immune system) at the same time may interfere. In addition, there are stages of brain development that too early exposure to the outside world moves brain cells too quickly between stages.
The whole point is that it happens at different stages of pregnancy and maybe also shortly after it (in humans). There probably isn't one reason, it's an unfortunate combination of stress/cytokines/day of pregnancy, etc.
A. staff
Luc Montanier thinks that DNA produces measurable electromagnetic radiation.
He is not the first case of a Nobel laureate talking nonsense...
Regarding homeopathy, it is a little difficult for me to accept this as a clear scientific statement that it is proven not to work, even by the fact that it works as a placebo.
In addition, everything related to drugs will always be tainted by the money and interests of the drug companies. Just like they try to prevent the use of cannabis. When they have no possibility of making a profit, they fight the product/method with all their might, and what is easier than harnessing scientists who depend on the budgets they will receive from drug companies for their own next research.
The absurdity of the pharmaceutical companies is that they do not try to cure the patient, but only to improve his comfortable condition when he is dependent on and supported by a drug that he must take for a long time and then add more drugs in order to deal with the side effects of the first drug and what a profitable and wonderful vicious circle of the pharmaceutical companies.
Imagine if it would be possible to heal people…..
And back to the "scientific fact" that homoeopathy does not work,
I have heard and even seen several cases of successful homeopathic treatment, so it is difficult for me to accept this as one of the 5 "scientific facts".
It is true that in a simple chemical calculation of Avogadro's number in relation to the number of dilutions there is no active substance, but this does not mean that there is no energetic interaction that we do not yet understand. Sure and sure when it comes to water "wonderful are the ways of water".
On the topic of homeopathy, the debate is about whether water remembers.
In the link below is a Nobel Prize winner who demonstrates in a controlled and public experiment that indeed water has a memory even after not even one molecule of the original substance remains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8VyUsVOic0
Lavi: You can read about a possible scientific explanation for the placebo effect here, for example: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528812-300-evolution-could-explain-the-placebo-effect/
In general terms, the idea is that the body has to weigh its various needs and fighting disease is just one of those needs. Belief in the success of the treatment changes the weighting in favor of allocating more resources to that war (at the expense of other processes that are postponed to another time).
A slight wording correction in the previous message I sent -
The common ancestor between us and chimpanzees was not a chimpanzee.
I agree with the comments and I like them more than the article itself!
my father
What you said about vaccines is problematic - the idea that an individual should not be vaccinated. It's a very slippery slope - in particular, it's not worth serving in the army, not paying taxes, and so on. In particular, you should also cheat, steal and even kill.
Beyond that, it's simply not true. Only charlatans claim that the risk of vaccinating an individual is greater than the benefit. An example of this is the case of those who did not vaccinate their children with the polio vaccine 4 years ago.
"From the period after their split from the chimpanzees six million years ago"
This is a mistake, the common ancestor between us and chimpanzees is not a chimpanzee.
Other than that, a fascinating article.
The fifth section is irrelevant. There is no scientific proof or disproof here, but a lack of solid knowledge. Not at all a good example of the power of science
A few more things related to the five consensuses:
Regarding homeopathy - a scientific experiment was conducted that proved that homeopathy is no more effective than placebo - that is, no more effective than blood medicine.
The effectiveness of any drug before it is approved for use is tested against a placebo - (a blood drug, which has everything except the active ingredient) and a drug is not tested against those who did not receive the drug - and why?
Because the placebo has a proven medical effect! And all scientists and health authorities agree on this.
But until today, science has not found the reason for the proven activity of the placebo drug.
That is, the very knowledge of the patient that he is being treated and that he received medicine... already cures a significant and definite percentage of the patients.
It also works on animals.
Science has no explanation why.
Therefore, a homeopathic medicine can be treated like a placebo medicine - that is, it does cure a certain percentage of patients because of an effect called the placebo effect, which no scientist knows how to explain.
Regarding vaccines - today it is quite certain that they do not cause autism, but there are other reasons not to just take vaccines or try to avoid them:
1- Every vaccine has risks - risks of an allergic reaction, risks of contamination and so on, the risk of not taking a vaccine is not always higher than the risk of taking the vaccine, especially from the point of view of a single person who is in a population that is mostly vaccinated (there is a lot of selfishness in this, but it is a fact).
2. There are theories (which have not been proven) and there is also a logical and scientifically explained mechanism, that giving too many vaccines causes an excess of antibodies in the body and overstimulation of an inflammatory chain in the body, which may cause, or increase, or act as a trigger for autoimmune diseases.
Regarding evolution - I will not go into it because it upsets the religious and creationists.
In connection with global warming - as above, we have already discussed the topic too much on this website in my opinion.
Aliens - logic says that somewhere in the universe there are other beings like us, but there is no chance that we have had or will have encounters with these beings in the future, and only because of the distances in the universe that do not allow this and the probability that they will be at a distance that can be bridged. – The whole issue arose when Jules Warren's science fiction stories began, before that no one would meet aliens.
These are indeed five scientific consensuses that most scientists agree on.
But this does not mean that in the future it will not be proven otherwise.
And just as many consensuses were refuted in the past, it is also possible that the consensuses will be overturned in the future.
Not long ago in 2011, Per Dan Shechtman received a Nobel Prize for breaking the consensus of crystals that only those who know chemistry can understand the magnitude of the consensus that was broken.
Only in 2015 was it decided by the Director of Health and Food in the USA that the studies clearly indicate that the amount of cholesterol in food does not affect the level of cholesterol in the blood and does not affect cardiovascular diseases at all, therefore there is no reason not to eat eggs and internal organs of animals that contain cholesterol.- Most The doctors in Israel and around the world still haven't been able to digest this information, they still continue to recommend reducing the consumption of eggs...
And there are many more such consensuses that have been broken.
And so I propose to write such an article about broken consensuses, and also about all the scorn and ridicule suffered by the scientists who proposed them, starting with Einstein who claimed that God does not play with dice and ending with Linus Pauling (a famous Nobel Prize-winning chemist) who said about Dan Shechtman "there are no crystal quasars, but there are scientist quasars".
scribal error correction.
The opening line should read: The article deals with 5 issues …..
The article deals with 6 issues for which the science version has vocal opponents.
The article tries to prove that the science version is the correct one. Even if the science version is indeed the correct one in all the discussed issues, the authors are nevertheless wrong in the basic logic of the article and their efforts to prove the "alleged scientific truth" are doomed to failure, for three fundamental reasons:
One - history shows us that solid truths are revealed, many times, over time, to be wrong.
The second - from the logical point of view, it is not possible to prove the correctness or truth of a theory but,
Only the unwillingness of it.
The third - all the objections to what the authors call "scientific truth" but I prefer to call "the scientific data known today", are irrational and usually related to belief, religious or otherwise.
As we know, "faith", and especially religious faith, cannot be convinced(!), neither with scientific data nor with rational reasoning.
There are only two ways to get religious believers to accept scientific arguments and they are:
1]. Technological advantages - arising from scientific knowledge. For example, medicines, various devices that make life easier and all that.
2]. Financial benefits - arising from scientific knowledge. For example, improving the ability to make a living from the computer and cyber professions, from the nursing and medical professions, and much more.