Unsupported Science Beliefs You Hold

[Just_Asking_Questions]

I have two “beliefs”, one probably true, the other…well…

The first is that your DNA has a LOT more to do with cancer and cancer treatments than anyone suspects. From anecdotal stories about “my grandfather smoked 10 packs a day and never got cancer”, to people who just never respond to cancer treatments that work for most people, I think it isn’t just random.

They are beginning to understand this, with those interminable commercials for drugs that work “in people with non-HIR2” or whatever. The trouble is, there’s no way to study this without letting a lot of people die, or worse even, poisoning them.

Some people have genetics that will always give them cancer, some have genetics that will give them cancer with the right triggers, toxins, whatever, and some who will likely never get cancer if they breathed cig smoke 24 hours a day.

To study it, you’d have to map everyone’s DNA, then spend years tracking which approved treatments do what to who, and only then can you begin to experiment. IF ethically it could even be done.

The second one I “believe”, and not to the point I’m going to say it anywhere but here, is I believe in “consciousness quantum reality”, that choices, basically, determine reality. WE decide if that damn cat is dead or alive. And some people are “better” at it than others, which could explain luck.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

I also believe that a lot, not all, of so-called paranormal activity, has a rational, but possibly exotic, explanation, but that study is bogged down by people who are too rational and laugh at exotic ideas. No, I do not believe ghosts exist, I mean, things that appear to be ghosts are not always due to imagination or lying, that there is something actually creating the phenomenon, and people just misinterpret it. Probably with a bit of help of pareidolia.

Like, for example, I don’t think all “ghost lights” are car headlights or swamp gas. I have no idea what they are, but simply dismissing it as “easily explained”, when the historical facts don’t support such a simple explanation, could make us miss something new. Instead, it’s “car headlights”, even though ghost lights go back hundreds of years. Then it’s just “a hoax”.

[Slithy_Tove]

Here’s one I think about but lack the science on:

AFAIK, the earth has a molten core. This creates an electromagnetic field that keeps our atmosphere from being scoured away by solar winds.

Here’s where my sketchy science feeds my skepticism: Mars has a much smaller molten core, and any plans to colonize it will pretty much be biodome artificial.

[griffin1977]

Despite the evidence in their favor being sketchy at best, I will still take “Emergen-C” type vitamins (Vit-C, Vit-D, and Zinc) when there is a cold in the household or I’m feeling like I may be coming down with something (which is like 90% of the time given how often my kids get something). I’m quite comfortable with the fact they are like 99% placebo.

[kayaker]

@griffin1977

I’m quite comfortable with the fact they are like 99% placebo.

My gf occasionally takes Airborne.

I’ve explained to her that it is crap. I’ve shown her various cites explaining that there are no scientific studies supporting the manufacturer’s claims. I’ve told her the manufacturer has been fined for making unsupported claims. I’ve told her about how the former owners of Airborne Health Inc. agreed to pay $23.3 million to settle a class action lawsuit

My gf occasionally takes Airborne.

[HoneyBadgerDC]

@Lumpy

The number of aliases the food industry has come up with for sugar and sugar-like substances is huge. Maltose, Maltodextrin, HFCS, and I swear to God “cane juice

I always thought they had subtle differences. I have kind of a reaction to certain foods and the only thing they seem to have in common is maltose. Mainly cereals and some cookies. It gives me a hangover if I have a midnight snack as well as some minor cramping.

[echoreply]

@Voyager

Could you give me a cite for a reputable cognitive scientist who thinks one number will do for intelligence?

Here is a mostly useless search. One of the results on the first page is for dogs, so take it as you will. The point is, that’s something like 5 million results for articles mentioning “general intelligence factor,” so clearly something that cognitive scientists use I’m sure many are criticizing it. Many certainly are not, and even many of the criticisms are just refinements, not outright rejection.

@Voyager

It requires assigning weights to the importance of each, and assuming the set you have is comprehensive

That is engineer talk; you’re dealing with psychologists here! More seriously, applying the methods appropriate to one field to another is not always appropriate. General intelligence factor, or g, at it’s root is simply a factor analysis. No need to assign weights or worry about error bars. Drop in a bunch of scores, take the first factor, and call it g. What comes out is something that represents what is common among all of the different scores.

That first factor will correlate with lots of outcomes we think are related to intelligence, such as educational achievement, career, etc. (Of course it is not a perfect correlation, if it was, nobody would believe it, but correlations less than 1.0 can still be useful.)

@Chronos

Anything that says the word “syrup”, “nectar”, “sap”, or “honey” anywhere in it.

Somebody out there has some unsupported beliefs… My kid was following a recipe for homemade dog biscuits. First ingredient is “sugar free peanut butter.” Second ingredient is “honey.”

@Just_Asking_Questions

To study it, you’d have to map everyone’s DNA, then spend years tracking which approved treatments do what to who, and only then can you begin to experiment. IF ethically it could even be done.

This is not easy, but also nowhere near impossible. Very large population studies, such as the UK Biobank are making research like this happen. The UKB has about 500,000 participants, with questionnaire and medical records on them, as well as lots of genetic data. The huge success of the UKB has other places working on similar datasets.

Many of these are going to come from places with socialized medicine, where access to decades of medical records is possible. Genotyping people is now incredibly cheap. Now there is a resource to ask questions like, “is genotype related to success for this particular cancer treatment?”

ETA: We could always ask those questions. Now there is a resource that is almost sufficiently powered to answer them.

[Civil_Guy]

For some minor ailments, there’s something to be said that simply feeling a little better makes you strong enough to get through them faster. So we should do more research on finding more effective placebos. (Said in jest. Partly.)

[griffin1977]

@Civil_Guy

there’s something to be said that simply feeling a little better makes you strong enough to get through them faster.

Yeah totally, there is basically no treatment for these generic mild-ish respiratory viruses, so a placebo (that comes dissolve in water with some vitamins and sugar) is the best you are going to get.

In my parents generation the go to placebo was glucose, which was because when they were young there was a reasonable chance someone fighting of a generic respiratory infection was actually short of calories.

[Lumpy]

@Slithy_Tove

Here’s one I think about but lack the science on:

AFAIK, the earth has a molten core. This creates an electromagnetic field that keeps our atmosphere from being scoured away by solar winds.

Here’s where my sketchy science feeds my skepticism: Mars has a much smaller molten core, and any plans to colonize it will pretty much be biodome artificial

Some people think that in the long run terraforming Mars will include putting a giant superconducting ring in orbit around Mars to give it an artificial magnetosphere.

@griffin1977

Despite the evidence in their favor being sketchy at best, I will still take “Emergen-C” type vitamins (Vit-C, Vit-D, and Zinc) when there is a cold in the household or I’m feeling like I may be coming down with something (which is like 90% of the time given how often my kids get something). I’m quite comfortable with the fact they are like 99% placebo.

It’s much cheaper to just buy the supplements of those rather than the Airborne-etc. preparations. And at least for me zinc really does seem to reduce the length and severity of colds.

[Limmin]

@Beckdawrek

Yeah, but…Bigfoot.

Well…

Settled

[xtenkfarpl]

@Chronos

@xtenkfarpl

It is, of course evident that the moon emits ‘cold rays’.

The evidence is obvious: clear sky, moon visible: gets bloody cold.

Related to this, “everyone knows” that cold isn’t actually a thing, it’s just the absence of heat.

I do hope it was obvious that I was joking. Indeed, I thought this whole thread was probably intended as a lighthearted entertainment?

Some posters seem to be taking it a bit too seriously, perhaps?

[Knowed_Out]

I thought atheists didn’t believe in ghosts and fairies, but other Dopers disagreed. Apparently my definition of atheism is unsupported. God is part of the spirit world. It seems logical to me that the supernatural isn’t real if God isn’t real, but maybe I’m athsplaining.

[Slithy_Tove]

“Some people think that in the long run terraforming Mars will include putting a giant superconducting ring in orbit around Mars to give it an artificial magnetosphere.”

Can I still be skeptical (or even moreso?)

[griffin1977]

@Lumpy

It’s much cheaper to just buy the supplements of those rather than the Airborne-etc. preparations.

Oh I absolutely buy the off-brand when I can not the branch name “Emergen-C”, though I do think the preparation of pouring the “medicine” into a glass of water and seeing the “healing” fizz is important part of the placebo effect

Random aside: a difference between my wife and I, is that I will always go for the off brand, in almost any situation. Particular with over the counter medicines (I mean the ones that are actually medicine like Acetaminophen). Like, the manufacturer could actually end up in court if the off-brand version was not chemically identical to the brand name, so I’m quite happy to get the off-brand.

[garygnu]

I believe we are absolutely alone in the universe. Either way, we are in total agreement on your second point.

[Darren_Garrison]

@xtenkfarpl

Indeed, I thought this whole thread was probably intended as a lighthearted entertainment?

Nothing in the OP indicated that.

[DocCathode]

I have yet to find an explanation for Dyatlov Pass that is satisfying. Everytime I see some new article it lacks something- most often if it was just some kids camping and freezing why was the press silenced from so high up?

I’m not saying it was aliens, yeti, or a secret Soviet weapon. I’m just saying none of the ‘explanations’ explain everything.

[xtenkfarpl]

@Darren_Garrison

@xtenkfarpl

Indeed, I thought this whole thread was probably intended as a lighthearted entertainment?

Nothing in the OP indicated that.

Now that I look again at the OP, I’m afraid you may be right.
If taken seriously we are in the crackpot zone.
And in danger of straying into inflammatory areas like race vs IQ etc.

I am retiring from this thread right now.

[griffin1977]

@DocCathode

I have yet to find an explanation for Dyatlov Pass that is satisfying. Everytime I see some new article it lacks something- most often if it was just some kids camping and freezing why was the press silenced from so high up?

I’m not saying it was aliens, yeti, or a secret Soviet weapon. I’m just saying none of the ‘explanations’ explain everything.

So as I mention in the thread about these cases. I do really like reading (and being creeped out by) these really weird unexplained cases. But there is a certain amount cognitive dissonance there, the rational part of my brain knows there is nothing supernatural going on in any of these cases, there is undoubtedly a very mundane explanation, but that doesn’t stop me from being creeped out in a somewhat fascinating way.