How science works
Oct 4, 2011
Bishop Hill in Climate: other, Sui generis

One of the problems with building a demand for political action on science is that it tends to get in the way of the proper conduct of science. Correcting mistakes becomes difficult, if not impossible, because there are too many political vested interests involved.

It's nice then to be reminded of how things are meant to be, with this heartening story of an eminent mathematician who thought he had found something amazing, started writing a book about it and then let on in a discussion on Google+ about what he was working on. This led to some engagement with other interested mathematicians and shortly afterwards him posting the following remarks:

You are quite right, and my original response was wrong. Thank you for spotting my error.

I withdraw my claim.

At which point everybody shrugged their shoulders and moved on.

If only it were like that in climate science.

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