Here Be Dragons - Critical analysis of pseudoscience 3of5

Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism have received much media attention over recent years in their attempts to misrepresent science and insert their particular brand of pseudoscience into the public school science curriculum. Despite their dramatic losses in the courts, the fact that many people blindly believe their lies is indicative of a deeper problem.

Most people fully accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims without critique as they are promoted by the mass media. Here Be Dragons offers a toolbox for recognizing and understanding the dangers of pseudoscience, and appreciation for the reality-based benefits offered by real science.

Here Be Dragons is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast, author of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena, and Executive Producer of The Skeptologists.

Brian was kind enough to allow me to post this program to this channel. Check out his podcasts at,

http://skeptoid.com

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AE587A4C7E406380

http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=djarm67

Category:

Education

Tags:

• skeptoid
• brian
• dunning
• pseudoscience
• pseudo
• science
• paranormal
• creationism
• intelligent
• design

[BigFatHeretic]

Studying real science is the best vaccination there is against stupidity. My prescription: Read a few chapters from a book by Carl Sagan or Richard Dawkins and then, call me in the morning!

[technologysucks]

My mom puts crystals on my TV that she says get charged with measurable work capacity from the full moon and absorb radiation from my TV. Of course . . . she never uses the word "measurable work capacity". One time I questioned her about it and she said I was just being skeptical for no reason. I don't know any science specifically proving her claim wrong, but do know placing special importance on the full moon and crystals and using the word "energy" vaguely is classic stuff of myth

[EebstertheGreat]

Reading your comment again, I see that you do not realize that work is a mathematical concept. Work is, loosely, the component of force in the direction of motion times the displacement in that direction, or more precisely, the integral of the scalar product of force and the total differential of displacement.

I can see how, without this definition, simply calling energy "the potential to do work" is rather confusing.

[EebstertheGreat]

No it is not, because a plow does not have the potential to do work. Only if the plow contains energy, or if energy is applied to the plow, can the plow do work. When I pull a plow, I am turning chemical energy (a form of electromagnetic energy) into kinetic energy, thus doing work. In this sense, there are at least six forms of energy: one for each fundamental force, which is the work potential stored in that force's field, one for relativistic kinetic energy, and one for mass, or rest energy.

[poorkinghaggard]

A plow is energy, by that definition. Which is why I said is wrong in the way he was using it, because energy is not an object.

[EebstertheGreat]

No, that definition is pretty much spot-on. Of course, it can be defined more simply mathematically, but "the potential to do work" is still accurate. Can you think of a counterexample?

By the way, do not confuse the rarely used term "energy field" with the much more useful "force field" or "potential distribution." Force, potential, and energy are all separate quantities.

[poorkinghaggard]

His definition of energy is wrong, in the context he is trying to use it. For example physics uses energy to describe different things depending on what is being observed, like how gravity works.

I agree, energy is not a "thing" in the sense a car is a thing, but his definition is too narrow for how can be used.

[Thorstrongstone1]

Do a Google search for "Fish oil" Skeptic. The first few hits may help you a bunch.

[Nightmare060]

Aaaah I see. Well it's something I'll deffinatly re-start taking then. I just saw Omega 3 in the first parts "examples" of psuedo-science in action, so it made me wonder.

[thelordakira]

There is a good reason for omega 3.

There is an imbalance in the omega 3-6-9 in the regular diet. It does not mean you need to take it, it depends what you eat. Omega 3 would help the connections and memory, the connection affects mood and depression. if you eat tons of fireds food with conela oils, you need omega 3, if you dont, and eat fish... then you dont need the suppliment. there must be a video on youtube that talks about this.