onsdag 14 april 2010

Penguin Logic of Oxburgh

The International Panel set up by the University of East Anglia to examine the research of the Climatic Research Unit lead by Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool did not find anything wrong motivated by the following excuse:
  • CRU accepts with hindsight that they should have devoted more attention in the past to archiving data and algorithms and recording exactly what they did. At the time the work was done, they had no idea that these data would assume the importance they have today and that the Unit would have to answer detailed inquiries on earlier work. 
Lord Oxburgh and his Panel does not understand that this argument uses Penguin Logic, which is surprisingly popular in particular among scientists, but still is not correct logic of science. 

A result which is not documented cannot be an important scientific result. To say that a result without documentation can be an important scientific result requires Penguin Logic, and that 
is not correct logic of science. Scientists using Penguin Logic are often unaware of doing so and are seldom willing to understand that it is incorrect scientific logic.  

No wonder that the credibility of science and scientists is suffering; Penguin logic is not
logic of science, even if it is used by Lords and Royal Societies.

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