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Pathological science (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 2 days ago by dantheclamman@lemmy.world to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

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Pathological science is an area of research where "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions."

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[–] 200ok@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are some interesting examples given:

Polywater was a form of water which appeared to have a much higher boiling point and much lower freezing point than normal water. [...]

Eventually it was determined that many of the properties of polywater could be explained by biological contamination.

When more rigorous cleaning of glassware and experimental controls were introduced, polywater could no longer be produced.

It took several years for the concept of polywater to die in spite of the later negative results.

[–] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Cold fusion is a famous one, and also room temperature semiconductors