# 7 Warning Signs of Bogus Science **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 7, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725 "2003-03-07T15:22:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725/21 "2003-03-10T14:22:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zoid \* > \*\*Read the last part of my post in parenthesis. \*\* Thank you, _zoid_, your uncalled-for flipness had been duly noted. After several re-readings of your OP and my reply, I am still struggling to understand how you could equate the claimed existence of an after-life with “the odd miracle or two”. Hey-ho. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725/22 "2003-03-10T14:36:24Z")
If I’m not mistaken, the list of the Seven Warning Signs of Pseudoscience was originally given by Irving Langmuir, at a lecture he gave at General Electric back in the 1950s. The lecture was reprinted several years ago in **Physics Today**. It’s been kinda hard to get hold of – the PT article was the first generally available copy I know of – but it was well-known in the physics community shortly adfter it came out, and it has probably been widely quoted without true knowledge of its source. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725/23 "2003-03-10T14:42:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > \*\*Life after death is not a violation of the “laws” of physics. Physics has nothing to say on the subject. There are no experiments to do that will verify or deny its existance, so LAD remains an open question. > > Spirituality is not something that science has “disproved”. \*\* Surely, if life is something separate from our physical selves then Physics, as we understand it, is wrong, or at the very least _seriously_ incomplete. That looks like a violation to me, though the toss is there to be argued. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725/24 "2003-03-10T15:18:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > **Thank you, _zoid_, your uncalled-for flipness had been duly noted.** It’ won’t go in my permanent record will it!? :wally ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725/25 "2003-03-10T15:57:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Great Unwashed \* > \*\*Surely, if life is something separate from our physical selves then Physics, as we understand it, is wrong, or at the very least _seriously_ incomplete. That looks like a violation to me, though the toss is there to be argued. \*\* Well, Physics IS incomplete – we don’t even have a GUT yet, and both Relativity and Quantum Mech are still being cleaned up. Doesn’t make it a violation. Besides, LAD may be a misnomer – many religions hold that death is very, very real and the disembodied “soul” is incomplete (thus requiring either resurrection, reincarnation, joining with “god” or obliteration into nirvana). THAT is unfalsifiable by “Physics, as we understand it”, _for the time being_ 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-warning-signs-of-bogus-science/159725.md?page=1)