Customer Reviews

Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science

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John Grant's CORRUPTED SCIENCE is very enlightening. Most of us are familiar with scientific frauds that have been exposed over the years, such as the Piltdown Man and Cold Fusion, but did you know that test results were faked by such scientific giants as Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo, and Ptolemy? I certainly didn't.

This is a companion volume to Grant's DISCARDED SCIENCE, and if anything it's even more fascinating than the earlier volume. Grant's prodigious research is evident throughout, but it never gets in the way of his highly readable prose.

CORRUPTED SCIENCE is divided into six major chapters: "Fraudulent Scientists," touched on above, concerning scientific hoaxes; "Seeing What They Wanted to See," about innocent mistakes that cloud the scientific debate, sometimes for generations; "Military Madness," detailing the Pentagon's waste of almost unimaginable sums on cockamamie ideas; "The One True Book," exposing the activities of religious groups who deceitfully claim their ideas are valid scientific theories, e.g. Creationism's latest incarnation, Intelligent Design; "Ideology Trumps Science," examines racism and prejudice in the name of science; and finally "The Political Corruption of Science."

This last chapter highlights three major examples: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and Bush's America. If you don't believe the latter belongs in the same category as the former two, the evidence cited in this book may make you change your mind.

CORRUPTED SCIENCE is indispensable for anyone interested in the history of science and what's happening in our society today. It will take quite some time to repair the damage caused by the ideologist extremists and political hacks of the Bush Administration, Grant argues, and he presents his argument most convincingly.

The book is a bargain at Amazon's price. It's a hardcover complete with dustjacket. Though small in size, it's packed with information presented in a very readable format.

Grant's _Corrupted Science_ gives several examples of how the scientific process, and scientific research, has been interfered with.

Sometimes researchers fake results for various reasons ranging from flat out dishonesty, to pressure from co-workers or superiors. Scientists have also been so convinced that they are observing one thing, that they are resistant, even when proven wrong, to more accurate observations.

In other cases, however, researchers are not permitted to present their results, or even continue to work on various projects because of outside pressures. These influences can come from societal factions, government, business, religious groups or even the scientific peer-review process itself (p. 219). Their influence can be as subtle as a mass media interpretation of a research project, or as direct as denial of funding, or as bad as direct threats to scientists' careers (or lives!)

_Corrupted Science_ gives lots of examples. The usual classics are here (Cold Fusion, Intelligent Design, Piltdown Man, etc.) along with some that I had not heard of (N-rays anybody? How about Menstrual Rays?) But although some of the examples presented are downright comical, others are serious business (medical quackery, tobacco companies covering up the fact that smoking causes cancer, etc.)

Of course the worst thing that can happen is outside forces (usually a government) becoming so powerful in general, and having such an undue influence over science, that only certain ideas are allowed to be promulgated; anything out of line with the government-sanctioned ideology is ruthlessly stamped out. The obvious examples given in the book are Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. The author puts George W. Bush's anti-science activities (such as suppressing global warming research and promoting "creation science") in this category. Personally, I think that's a bit much; as bad as Mr. Bush's actions in this area are, they are more in line with those examples found in the "Ideology Trumps Science" chapter. (No one gets sent to Guantanamo Bay for opposing Bush's stand on global warming...at least yet....). Grant's politics peep out in various other places, particularly in the "Military Madness" and "Ideology Trumps Science" chapters.

In general, there is a lot of material in this book's 336 pages. It may have flowed better in places if some of the examples were recategorized. (For example, was Pons and Fleischmann's "discovery" of cold fusion a matter of fraud, or was it more like the two scientists "seeing what they wanted to see"?)

Anyone interested in the history of science, and its battles with other societal forces, should take a look at this book.

I loved reading this little book, and it's a great value for the money. Each scientific scam has its own little section, so it's easy to read in 5 or 10 page chunks if that's your style of reading. The one problem I had was that the author kept inserting his own politically-inspired, holier-than-thou diatribes into the text. I'm no fan of George W. Bush, but as others have mentioned, equating the Bush administration's misuse of science to Hitler's and Stalin's is a bit over-the-top. There were also too many instances where the author accused scientists involved in "scams" of being corrupt, when it easily could have been the case that they honestly believed the science they were espousing, but were simply wrong.

Even with my little complaints about the author's injection of his own person viewpoints into the book, I'm looking forward to reading his previous book on Discarded Science.

First off, there is a lot of fun stuff in this book. You want some info on Piltdown man, or why Soviet science is so poorly thought of by science historians, or the peculiar stupidity of the Nazis WRT science, this book has it all. I think it's important to remember the memes that this book brings up because history in general is often misinterpreted as this long, steady march from primitive to advanced. The history of science is probably interpreted this way even more than regular "drum and trumpet" style history. But in fact, history has all kinds of turnarounds, false starts, and failed hopes. It's worth remembering this kind of thing when faced with things like, for example, the current Presidential administration's tenuous grasp of nature.

But yeah, that being said, Bush is kind of moronic when it comes to science but there's no way he was as bad as Hitler or Stalin in this regard. Forget about the purges or the Holocaust because that's not really what the author was speaking to either: Bush's policies, while bad, aren't anything close to Lysenkoism or the refusal to practice "Jewish physics". I can certainly understand a scientist's frustration with the last eight years. That being said, this book is going to look pretty dated in 5 years when Bush is little more than a disgraced former President.

I notice that a lot of the negative reviews for this book come from the global warming denial crowd. IT'S CONTROVERSIAL MICHAEL CRICHTON TOLD ME SO WHERE IS MY VELOCIRAPTOR

This little book is packed with quite a bit of interesting informational topics, exposing political schemes to bend the truth about scientific logic.I agree with about ninty-five percent of his research findings.Yet,on a few topics he does not elaborate enough evidence to support his arguments.There are no foot-notes.There are many books listed to support his writing though.I would have given the book ,four and a half stars.I would still read it again for the vast wealth of information on scientific hoaxes,backed by shady business interests or political regimes of ill-repute.Sunlight is the best disinfectant and the truth will always shine.

This book challenges some of the most cherished "scientific" fallacies of the last 200 years--particularly those still in favor among religious fundamentalists, corporate power mongers, and political dictators. John Grant draws disturbing parallels between the leadership of Hitler, Stalin, and G.W. Bush. He also reveals how scientific research has been corrupted by academics seeking fame and/or money, and gives examples of how religious and political forces fight scientific advancements contrary to their own interests. It's not just in war that Truth is a casualty.

As a few others have written much of this book is interesting and worth your time. However, how the author can claim the controversy over global warming is entirely a black and white issue is beyond me. Many valid points are overshadowed by the authors own world view. I'm not surprised but I expected, no not expected, had HOPE for something a little better.

Corrupted science is at the same time an excellent book and a terrible book (but most of the book is excellent). I will note two examples that show Grant either did his homework or relied on those that did. His discussion of Galileo is very accurate. He wrote that "it is less the whole truth to say that Galileo Galilei was persecuted by the Catholic Church for insisting that the earth was not the center of the universe" and that the church was not especially antagonistic to this idea, but just wanted to wait until the evidence was in, and in Galileo's day it clearly was not. Also Galileo went up against one of the greatest astronomers that ever lived, Ptolemy and the church sided with the science establishment.
Grant also got the Bruno case correct (page 151). He wrote that "one of the classic tales within the history of science is that of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), [was] burnt at the stake for his support of the new Copernican cosmology... the story of Bruno as a martyr in the name of science - with the implicit corollary that the Church condemned scientific progress - is false." (`p. 151). Grant adds that in more modern times Bruno would have been regarded as a (probably) harmless lunatic" On the other hand, his discussion of the modern Intelligent Design movement is irresponsible. For example, in his discussion of the persecution of Darwin Doubters he concludes it is not happening and the few claims commonly presented as evidence of this problem are bogus. In fact thousands of documented cases exist and he cited only 4, all inaccurately, and 3 he got from Ron Numbers' book. He then, to prove no problem exists, cited 4 cases of Darwin Skeptics who were granted PhDs without problems from schools such as Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. The problem is the cases cited go as far back as over a half century ago and he ignores the many well documented cases that have occurred more recently. To answer this question requires surveying the 3,000 or so Darwin Doubters listed on various web sites and ask them if they have experienced problems due to their stand in this area. This has been done, and we now have clear evidence that persecution is a major problem. Further, this claim has been carefully documented. All of this evidence Grant ignores, or worse, is not aware of. I could go on but will not. Aside from this chapter and one other chapter the rest of the book was first rate.

All throughout Grant's book, the author reviews how scientists and governments have corrupted science in order to achieve political and/or ideological goals. All that is well and good until the book takes a bizarre twist in failing to recognize the global warming scare as corrupted science itself, which it obviously is to those who do not allow the likes of Al Gore and the mainstream media do their thinking for them.

It is clear that John Grant is a Goremonger who is fully committed to the global warming cult. And a cult is what it is in that it presents a prediction of an apocolyptic fate unless we do exactly what the global warming alarmists say. Grant repeats Gore's assertion that the debate on global warming is "over" and that there is absolutely no disagreement at all that global warming trends is man made and will doom us all, which is how cultists supress dissent. That misconception is easy for the alarmists to promote since the mainstream media is fully in their corner on this issue and never give any dissenters any exposure whatsoever.

That is why it is little known that more than 4,000 scientists from 106 countries, including 72 Nobel prize winners, signed the Heidelberg Appeal, calling for a rational scientific approach to environmental problems. Many senior scientists have also supported The Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming, The Leipzig Declaration and finally the Oregon Petition which received the signatures of over 19,000 scientists.

Also, carbon dioxide is a minor greenhouse gas. In the atmosphere there is over a hundred times the concentration of water vapour, which is the dominant greenhouse gas.

The Earth has been warming and cooling in cycles for hundreds of millions of years and will continue to do so until the end of time in accordance to solar cycles. It is by no means static. To believe that we can get the average temperature to a certain level and actually keep it there indefinitely is absurd and assumes god-like abilities.

The global warming scare is a scam used in an attempt to hold people in thrall to big government, raise taxes, and micro-manage every aspect of everyone's lives. I am glad that we live in a democracy that allows scrutiny, debate, and dissent over this topic that John Grant would pass off as "corrupted science."