Contents
Critiques of Contemporary Science and Medicine
Introduction
Stakeholders in any major enterprise can be expected to come forth with critical comments. Science is no exception. We present a sampling of articles and books on the status of the current scientific enterprise.
The IVS takes no stand on any of the positions offered in any of these pieces. We merely provide a forum for easy dissemination.
Credit goes to Henry Bauer, Dean Emeritus of Arts and Sciences, Virginia Tech, who has graciously shared his extensive bibliography. That bibliography constitutes the bulk of the material below. We have updated his list, and continue to do so.
Alerts to additional relevant and interesting pieces are most welcome. Please contact us.
Eye-opening pieces on problems with today’s science
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Books
Editorial preamble (from Prof. Henry Bauer):
- Many or most of these books are written by insiders who know at first hand whereof they speak.
- These whistle-blowers are often ostracized by the majority of their professional peers.
- This plethora of exposés has not led to needed reforms.
- Most of these books have been published since about 2000 — the situation is getting worse, and quite rapidly.
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Books / Science in General
Holster, Andrew, The Death of Science. 2016. Building from The Twilight of the Scientific Age, below, Andrew Holster writes engagingly about the serious problems afflicting the modern scientific enterprise.
Lopez Corredoira, Martin. The Twilight of the Scientific Age. Brown Walker Press, Boca Raton FL The Twilight of the Scientific Age. Martin Lopez Corredoira, Brown Walker Press, Boca Raton FL, 2013. A popular, engaging and insightful book on the underlying reasons why science has seen better days.
Braben, Don. Promoting the Planck Club 2014 Dealing with the conditions necessary for creative scientists to achieve success, and how that might be accomplished today.
Mirowski, Philip. Science-Mart: Privatizing American Science. Harvard University Press, 2011
Bauer, Henry H. Fatal Attractions: The Troubles With Science. Paraview Press, 2001
Stark, Andrew. Conflict of Interest in American Public Life. Harvard University Press, 2000
Levinson, Ralph, & Jeff Thomas (eds.,) Science Today: Problem or Crisis? Routledge, 1997
Ziman, John. Prometheus Bound: Science in a Dynamic Steady State. Cambridge University Press, 1994
Bauer, Henry H. Scientific Literacy and Myth of the Scientific Method. University of Illinois Press, 1992
Goldberg, Jeff. Anatomy of a Scientific Discovery. Bantam, 1988
Teitelman, Robert. Gene Dreams: Wall Street, Academia, and the Rise of Biotechnology. Basic, 1989
Hazen, Robert M. The Breakthrough: The Race for the Superconductor. Summit, 1988
Levinthal, Charles E. Messengers of Paradise: Opiates and the Brain. Anchor/Doubleday, 1988
Angier, Natalie. Natural Obsessions: The Search for the Oncogene. Houghton Mifflin, 1987
Burnham, John C. How Superstition Won and Science Lost. Rutgers University Press, 1987
Hall, Stephen S. Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene. Atlantic Monthly, 1987
Kanigel, Robert. Apprentice to Genius: The Making of a Scientific Dynasty. Macmillan, 1986
Taubes, Gary. Nobel Dreams: Power, Deceit, and the Ultimate Experiment. Random House, 1986
Clark, David H. The Quest for SS433. Viking, 1985
Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. Little, Brown, 1981
Watson, James D. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA. Atheneum, 1968 (a very useful annotated edition including commentaries, reviews, and original articles was edited by Gunther Stent, W. W. Norton 1980)
Barzun, Jacques. Science: The Glorious Entertainmen. Harper & Row, 1964
Standen, Anthony. Science is a Sacred Cow. E. P. Dutton, 1950
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Books / Medical Science
Goldacre, Ben. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients. Faber & Faber, 2013
Healy, David. Pharmageddon. University of California Press, 2012
Kirsch, Irving. The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Anti-Depressant Myth. Basic Books, 2010
Virapen, John. Side Effects: Death. Confessions of a Pharma-Insider. virtualbookworm.com, 2010
Watters, Ethan. Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. Free Press, 2010
Lane, Christopher. Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness. Yale University Press, 2008
Pearce, Neil. Adverse Reactions: The Fenoterol Story. Auckland (NZ): Auckland University Press, 2007
Relman, Arnold. A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care. PublicAffairs, 2007
Mahar, Maggie. Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. Collins, 2006
Rost, Peter. The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2006
Smith, Richard. The Trouble with Medical Journals. CRC Press (Taylor & Francis, now Informa), 2006
Abramson, John. Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine. HarperCollins, 2004
Avorn, Jerry. Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs. Knopf, 2004
Elliott, Carl. Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream. W.W. Norton, 2003
Horwitz, Allan V. Creating Mental Illness. University of Chicago Press, 2003
Healy, David. The Creation of Psychopharmacology. Harvard University Press, 2002
Ravnskov, U. The Cholesterol Myths.New Trends Publishing, 2000
Abraham, John, & Julie Sheppard. The Therapeutic Nightmare. Earthscan (UK), 1999
Werth, Barry. The Billion-Dollar Molecule. Simon & Schuster, 1994
Ellis, Albert. Why Some Therapies Don’t Work. Prometheus, 1989
Adams, Stanley. Roche versus Adams. Jonathan Cape, 1984
Braithwaite, John. Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Routledge, 1984/2012
Yoxen, Edward. The Gene Business. Harper & Row, 1983
Kenney, Martin. Biotechnology: The University-Industrial Complex. Yale University Press, 1986
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Articles, Blogs, Posts
Articles, Blogs, Posts / Science in General
An NPR interview dealing with the impediments faced by scientists pursuing unconventional approaches. A pungent critique of today’s science enterprise.
Evidence for the decline of investment in fundamental science.
A revealing interview with Nobelist Sydney Brenner on the status of the current scientific enterprise.
An amusing (and telling) foray into issues of publishing scientific results. Would be hilarious if not accurate.
A critique of the scientific enterprise from former NIH Director and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus and several other scientific leaders.
Bauer, Henry H. The Science Bubble. EdgeScience, #17, February 2014, 3-6
Bauer, Henry H. Three stages of modern science. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 27 (2013) 505-13
Nicholson, Joshua M. & John P. A. Ioannidis. Conform and be funded. Nature, 492 (2012) 34-6
Ioannidis, John P. A. Fund people not projects. Nature, 477 (2011) 529-31
Slow-Science Academy. The slow science manifesto (2010).
Smith, Richard. Classical peer review: an empty gun. Breast Cancer Research, 12 (suppl. 4, 2010) S13
Lawrence, Peter A. The mismeasurement of science. Current Biology, 17 (2007) R583-5.
Martinson, Brian C. Universities and the money fix. Nature, 449 (2007) 141-2
Crichton, Michael. Aliens cause global warming. Caltech Michelin Lecture, 17 January 2003; also in Three Speeches by Michael Crichton.
Muller, Richard A. Innovation and scientific funding. Science, 209 (1980): 880883
Weinberg, Alvin M. Science and trans-science. Minerva, X (1972) 209-222
Barber, Bernard. Resistance by scientists to scientific discovery. Science, 134 (1961) 596-602 (see also Hook in BOOKS)
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Articles, Blogs, Posts / Medical Science
Rethinking Risk and the Precautionary Principle, Butterworth, 2000
Willman, David. How a new policy led to seven deadly drugs. Los Angeles Times, 20 December 2000
Bland, J. M. & D. G. Altman. Bayesians and frequentists. British Medical Journal, 317 (1998) 1151-60
Greenland, Sander. Probability logic and probabilistic induction. Epidemiology, 9 (1998) 322-32
Altman, D. G. The scandal of poor medical research. British Medical Journal, 308 (1994) 2831
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