Neuroscience: A word of warning

In the first part of this article (Neuroscience in the classroom, SecEd 428, November 5, 2015), I recounted a story about the residents of an island in the South Pacific who, during the Second World War, saw heavy activity by US planes bringing in goods and supplies for the soldiers.

When the war ended, so did the cargo shipments. Confused and keen to see the activity resume, some islanders built fake air-strips with wooden control towers, bamboo radio antennae, and fire torches instead of landing-lights. They believed this would attract more US planes carrying precious cargo.

The physicist Richard Feynman used the event to coin the phrase “cargo-cult science”. Just as the islanders’ air-strips had the appearance of the real thing but were not functional, cargo-cult science refers to something that has the appearance of science but is actually missing the vital elements of it. In other words, people who peddle cargo-cult science use scientific terms and may even perform research but their thinking and – more importantly – their conclusions are scientifically flawed.