Notes on How to Assemble Science
Source: How to assemble science.
Table of Contents
1. Vocabulary
- staggering1
- Humanity produces a staggering amount of new knowledge every day.
- bemuse2, flip-flopping3
- When reading the news, you may occationally be bemused by the flip-flopping science and health stories.
- cherrypick4, downplay5
- Yet looking closer at the science, it was clear that the FDA and its parent health department had cherrypicked a few studies, and downplayed other more robust findings.
- maternal6
- Existing evidence does not clearly link maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in offspring. 现有证据并未明确表明，母亲在孕期使用扑热息痛与后代患自闭症或多动症之间存在关联.
- on the surface
- On the surface, that might seem like a number to celebrate, but it also poses a problem.
- balloon7, discern8
- As the volume of research balloons, it can be hard to discern what these millions of papers actually tell us.
- firehose9, rigorous10, baffle11, sloppy12, indigenous insights13, lived experience14
- Within the firehose, there are rigorous methodologies and important findings, but also baffling contradictions, unconfirmed results and sloppy science. And some diverse forms of knowledge, such as lived experience and Indigenous insights, are rarely captured in scholarly articles and databases at all.
- breathlessly, flashy
- Journalists breathlessly chase the latest, flashiest studies so their headlines get clicks online.
- take stock of15
- Meanwhile, hardly any of us spend time trying to make sense of what the world already knows by carefully synthesising and taking stock of existing knowledge.
- scandalous16
- scandalous failure of science to cumulate evidence scientifically
- unglamorous17
- This unglamorous labour already shapes our lives far more than any individual study or news headline will.
- wicked problem[A scientific/social/cultural problem that is extermely complex, interconnected, and difficult], possess18
- We might also realise that, for many of the wicked problems we face, humans already possess much of the knowledge needed to solve them.
- ingenious19
- the statistician Gene Glass revealed an ingenious technique that showed how to integrate findings from a large volume of individual studies.
- run counter to20, stem in21, placebo effect22
- But his positive experience ran counter to the weight of academic opinion, … This stemmed in large part from the work …, or had a placebo effect at best.
- irritated23, flush away24
- Glass was irritated. Not only did this suggest that he’d flushed away money on ineffective therapy, but he felt Eysenck’s reviewing methods were flawed.
- set out25, hunt down, scrap
- devise26
- toil27
- scour28, whittle down29, intervention30
- fanfare, morning stroll
- unsubstantiated
- criticism, subspeciality
- gargantuan
- reproach31
- allure, glamour
- collate
1.1. Good Sentences
- This was confirmed a couple of months later when researchers published a major review that better represented the full body of knowledge. 几个月后，这一结论得到了证实：研究人员发表了一篇重要的综述文章，更全面地反映了当时已有的科学认识。
- These tools to make sense of a body of evidence are one of the most important developments in science over the past few decades. … It’s the scientific equivalent of seeing the forest, not just the trees.
- It is surely a great criticism of our profession that we have not organised a critical summary, by speciality or subspecialty, adapted periodically, of all relevant randomised controlled trials.
Footnotes:
So astonishing, surprising as to cause someone to reel or lose their balance.
to confuse, puzzle, or bewilder someone
making a sudden, coplete change from one opinion, plan, or policy to a different one
to select only the best, most desirable, or most favourable people, items, data, or ideas from a group while leaving the rest behine.
to make sth. seem less important, serious, or severe than it actually is.
related to, or having the qualities of, a mother
(neg.) grow quickly
to see, recognize sth. that is not immediately obvious or clear
overwhelming information overhead
extremely thorough, exact, strict, and careful
to totally confuse; to be unable to understand or explain
careless, messy, and poorly done
traditional knowledge developed by native people over generations
personal knowledge gained through interaction
to pause and carefully assess, examine, review
(a behaviour or stories) shocking, morally wrong, disgraceful
lacking excitement, charm
obtain, have, own, hold
clever, original, inventive in conception or execution
to go against, oppose, conflict with
originate from
安慰剂效应
slightly annoyed, angry, impatient due to a specific event, person
to waste or lose sth. valuable
to start a journey, to begin
to invent or create a system or method
to engage in hard, continuous and exhausting labor; to move slowly with great physical effort
to clean; to search
to gradually reduce size, number of amount of sth. bit by bit
a deliberate action designed to step into a difficult situation, improve outcome
to express disagreement, disapproval