Devil’s tower, a laccolithic butte in Wyoming, is the stump of an ancient silicon tree. This amazing fact was sent to me by a reader complete with YouTube link for proof. If only I would watch the video with an open mind, I would learn the error of my scientific ways. 

The video itself follows a common pattern, where an amazing claim is made, and the evidence presented is simply that two things look similar. Since an intrusion of magma through Earth’s crust looks somewhat similar to a tree stump, it must be a giant tree stump. It is the same method used by those who claim the Earth is flat, deny global warming and evolution, or espouse young Earth creationism, the electric universe, the doomsday planet Nibiru, that vaccines cause autism, and even that our solar system moves in a helical vortex. Their arguments are buttressed by claims that science is closed-minded, arrogant and dogmatic, or simply covering up the truth to protect their jobs.

It’s tempting to laugh these ideas off. After all, fringe ideas have always been proposed throughout history. But the difference is that with the rise of YouTube and social media this ideas spread faster and can become more ingrained in the minds of followers. The “Devil’s tower is a tree stump” video has more than half a million views, and is posted by someone with nearly three quarter of a million subscribers. That’s more than subscribe to the Sixty Symbols video series, for example. I can almost guarantee that in response to this post supporters of some of the pseudoscience I listed above will send me long diatribes about how their model shouldn’t be lumped in with the others. As wrong as these ideas are, they have staunch supporters willing to defend them. Not only do supporters of pseudoscience defend their ideas, but they vote and drive political conversations. Our society is shaped in part by these ideas, whether we like it or not. So it’s important to push back against these claims.

That might sound like I’m saying people are stupid, and that they need to be told what to think by intelligent and knowledgeable scientists like me. I’m not. Being wrong about a particular concept doesn’t make you stupid, and being open to new ideas even when they sound crazy at first is part of the curiosity science tries to foster. The problem isn’t stupidity or ignorance, it’s a failure of critical thought. And it’s not just a problem with pseudoscience advocates. Most modern scientific discoveries are promoted through press releases and media packets, many of which don’t even link to the actual research. They use exactly the same approach as the video above, where a few pretty pictures are used to support a wild scientific claim without linking to any actual evidence. A press release made without citing research is just as pseudoscientific as a YouTube video making unsubstantiated claims. We’re all capable of being intellectually lazy.

The good news is that critical analysis and intellectual discourse can be encouraged and promoted. The same tools that are used to promote pseudoscientific ideas can be used to raise the bar on scientific discussion. But making that change depends upon those of us who want to see a richer and more thoughtful exploration of knowledge. It’s easy to point fingers at the fringe and declare how poorly they behave. It’s more difficult to look at ourselves with a critical eye. That means calling out press releases and popular news stories that don’t cite actual research. It means taking the time to present ideas clearly as well as the evidence behind them. And it means having the patience to engage in discussions with those of opposing ideas, even though sometimes it will feel like feeding the trolls. If we want to promote knowledge and critical thought, as lovers and promoters of scientific ideals we have to encourage it ourselves.

If we don’t do this, then we are simply peddling ignorance in the name of knowledge.

The post Ignorance Peddling In The Age Of YouTube appeared first on One Universe at a Time.

A few years ago I started blogging about astronomy and astrophysics. My goal was two-fold. First, to communicate as clearly as possible some of the amazing things we know about the universe. In the past few decades we’ve gained a deep understanding of astrophysics, and I wanted to bring that to the general population. Second, to counter the hype and misconceptions constantly in the news. With the rise of ad-driven websites, most popular science sites focus on outrageous headlines and copy-pasta press releases. Over time my effort has focused on writing an original post everyday, which I’ve been doing for more than two years. By the end of this week I’ll have written 800 posts. Despite that, there are many days where it feels like I’m tilting at windmills.

Consider, for example, the case of one Pierre-Marie Robitaille. Robitaille is a radiologist who around 2000 became convinced that physicists and astrophysicists were seriously wrong about basic physics. He believes that Kirchoff’s blackbody radiation law is wrong, and in 2002 he took out a full page ad in the New York Times to promote his ideas, because his theory is “both too simple and unexpected to stand any chance of publication in the peer reviewed physics literature”

Robitaille makes several wild claims about astrophysics. He claims that the cosmic microwave background isn’t due to the thermal remnant of the big bang, but rather due to microwaves reflected off the surface of Earth’s oceans. He claims the Sun isn’t powered by nuclear fusion in its core, but is instead a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen at 7 million degrees. His work hasn’t been published in refereed astrophysics journals, but has appeared in vixra (created to counter the elitist arxiv) and Progress in Physics, which is an alternative science journal.

Blackbody curve of the CMB. Credit: Ned Wright

How do you begin to counter such ideas? Well, we could start with the fact that the blackbody law has been confirmed experimentally in numerous ways, or that the cosmic microwave background matches a thermal blackbody to extreme precision, or that stellar temperatures derived from the blackbody law match temperatures found by atomic line spectra. We could point out that the CMB has been observed by satellites millions of miles away from Earth, and aimed away from Earth’s surface, or that reflected microwaves wouldn’t give a blackbody curve due to absorption bands in both water and Earth’s atmosphere. You could point out that his liquid-metal Sun model relies upon thermal blackbodies to be impossible, that his argument in favor of a liquid photosphere is that it looks liquid, and that his main argument against gravity-driven solar fusion is that the model uses mathematics.

Many of you reading this might figure that Robitaille is so wildly wrong that I shouldn’t even bother trying to counter his claims. I should just respond with “Eppur si muove!” and get on with real science. But then for most of you I’m preaching to the choir. I’m tilting at windmills, because the great debate isn’t occurring on blogs or in the refereed journals.

It’s happening on YouTube.

An appealing video can be very convincing.

Robitaille has been espousing his ideas for more than a decade, but I started getting requests to consider his clearly wonderful work when a talk of his was posted on YouTube. Fans of the electric universe, for example, flood my inbox with links and demands based upon YouTube videos. The biggest proponent of the electric universe is the Thunderbolts Project, which has over 200 videos, with millions of views. The videos are clear, and argue in simple terms that they are right, and thousands of trained scientists are wrong. And they’re winning hearts and minds.

Making videos is not something that’s been at the top of my list. It’s much easier to simply write blog posts and link to refereed sources. But if anyone wants to help make some videos, I’m ready to get busy. I’ll do what I can to make things more appealing and accessible, because the scientific gains we’ve made are too precious to be drowned in the noise of slick pseudoscience.

And I’m tired of tilting at windmills.

The post Tilting at Windmills appeared first on One Universe at a Time.