Science Fictions cover art

Science Fictions

Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science

Preview

Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Science Fictions

Written by: Stuart Ritchie
Narrated by: Stuart Ritchie
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹888.00

Buy Now for ₹888.00

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

So much relies on science. But what if science itself can’t be relied on?

Medicine, education, psychology, health, parenting - wherever it really matters, we look to science for advice. Science Fictions reveals the disturbing flaws that undermine our understanding of all of these fields and more.

While the scientific method will always be our best and only way of knowing about the world, in reality, the current system of funding and publishing science not only fails to safeguard against scientists’ inescapable biases and foibles, it actively encourages them. From widely accepted theories about ‘priming’ and ‘growth mindset’ to claims about genetics, sleep, microbiotics, as well as a host of drugs, allergies and therapies, we can trace the effects of unreliable, overhyped and even fraudulent papers in austerity economics, the anti-vaccination movement and dozens of best-selling books - and occasionally count the cost in human lives.

Stuart Ritchie has been at the vanguard of a new reform movement within science aimed at exposing and fixing these problems. In this vital investigation, he gathers together the evidence of their full and shocking extent and proposes a host of remedies to save and protect this most valuable of human endeavours from itself.

©2020 Stuart Ritchie (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Biological Sciences Science

What listeners say about Science Fictions

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Terrific read - enjoyed every bit

The book is full of examples and is a very interesting read. The solutions given at the end were good and must be adopted immediately by all. It raises a slight alarm that we in the scientific community must be aware of. People who are not from science background can be easily fooled by scientific papers especially circulating on social media.

The author's classification of the problem and explanation of each problem e.g. hype, confirmation bias, sample size, p-hacking etc in laymen language is laudable.

One specific example is "p hacking" which the author explains extraordinarily well. "p-hacking" not just applies to scientific literature but plays a loose role in spreading fake news on health, nutrients and religious beliefs that people want to sugar coat with science and statistics.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!