Monthly Archives: September 2018

The Embarassment of Science

Posted on by
Reply

The cataract-ridden public eye

For the average layman science is science; it is the authoritative voice of our collective knowledge as a species, defining the nature of reality, dispelling myth and misconception, and producing a singular, unified, unanimous understanding of the universe. The reality of the situation, it turns out, is something quite different.

We think of science as a systematic approach to observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, and publishing of results. Whilst this naive view might have applied last century, we now find ourselves in a complex ecosystem of ideological power struggles, bureaucracy, and economic incentives to find certain types of results.

Scientific Censorship

Imagine you are a scientist, and you have just made an incredible discovery which suggests that we need to rethink some of our fundamental beliefs. So you collect as much data as you can and carefully prepare a paper to submit to a scientific journal for peer review. You are quite excited about your statistically significant results, and the implications, and so you eagerly await the reaction from your fellow scientists.

The paper then lands on the desk of the editor of the scientific journal. He starts reading, and a frown appears over his face. He skips the the end to read the conclusions. This paper could cause a lot of problems for him, perhaps because of his boss, perhaps because of the readership, or perhaps because of influential people who have a vested interest in the journal. Either way, he cannot possibly publish this article, and so he rejects it before it even can make its way to be peer reviewed.

You receive the rejection. You are stunned, then saddened, and then angered. After a few days you calm down and decide that it is not important, there are other journals whom you can approach to get your research published. Unfortunately, as you soon discover, journal after journal reject your paper. This is not a conspiracy, your findings simply support a sufficiently unpopular opinion that the journals feel uncomfortable to publish.

Source: wiley.com

If we consider for a moment the “ecosystem of academic knowledge”, we see that there are significant consequences to this practice. Knowledge can be seen as being created and refined within the universities. From this knowledge, a small portion of this then finds its way into scientific journals in order to disseminate this new information to the rest of the scientific community focusing on that field. A few years later this information might then be part of a meta-analysis hoping to give more credence to the results of individual research through aggregation. Some time may pass, and then the results of the meta-analysis might make its way into a textbook, and start to be consumed by a wider audience. More time passes, and this information starts to influence professional practice (perhaps it is medicine, or psychology, or engineering, or law, etc.). Eventually, if it survives the journey, this knowledge may become part of our collective understanding of the world.

Irritations of the Scientific Method

Sometimes, if research is not contrary to ideological doctrine, but sufficiently shocking, the media might pick up on it. This then immediately is fed into public consciousness in whatever version and form the media agency decides. And this can be extremely dangerous, as in the case of the Lancet retracting a paper suggesting that vaccines cause autism only after this was publicised to the general public as fact.

“How could this be allowed to happen?” you might well ask. Well, an important part of the scientific method is the reproduction of results to confirm the validity of the research. If results cannot be reproduced, then any conclusions based upon this can only be anecdotal at best. Unfortunately, the scientific community is incentivised by the institutions for which they work to produce novel research which is statistically significant. There is almost no incentive for scientists to reproduce results. This leads to a breakdown of the scientific method, and ultimately to the Replication Crisis which exists today.

Because science builds upon itself and makes assumptions that scientific work which was done in the past can be considered axiomatic, there is this veritable house of cards that is constructed. If one card falls, then all research built atop it falls too. Some research suggests that as little as 10% of research is reproducible.

p-Hacking

When time is taken to carefully assess results of research, it is discovered that a disturbing quantity of statistical results are misleading and not representative of the truth, and because of the lack of incentive to reproduce results, this issue is not detected until much later (or not at all). This could be simply due to honest mistakes on the part of the researchers, or as a deliberate attempt to “massage” the data in such a way as to produce statistically significant results; a practice referred to as p-Hacking or data dredging.

While such manipulation of data is highly unethical, it is understandable when one considers that the scientific ecosystem is constructed in such a way as to promote this very behaviour.

Hyper Abstraction

It should be understood that there are varying degrees by which science can depart from reality. At one level, you have the field of Chemistry. Here, scientists analyse properties of elements, atoms and molecules to isolate the fundamental laws governing chemical interactions. This is very close to reality, but not quite reality, as we are discovering in the field of Quantum Mechanics.

There are, however, other areas of research which are quite different, and are based on no such observable phenomena. Take, for example, the attempt by scientists to explain why the universe had such specific starting conditions such as to allow for intelligent life to develop. There is no explanation for why the universal constants are the way they are; even a slight change would result in a fundamental change to chemical properties, with the consequence that stars would not even be able to form. To accept that there is no implicit necessity for this within the laws of nature might suggest the intelligent design of the universe; a thought which is utterly repulsive to most scientists. Thus, there is a desperate attempt to find alternate explanations. These include the concept of parallel universes or the multiverse, where our universe is just one of an infinite number of slightly different universes, and in ours, we just happen to have conditions which led to intelligent life evolving.

It is possible to neither prove nor disprove such theories. I would thus suggest that such theories serve no other purpose than self-indulgent denial of the observable evidence.

Concluding Thoughts

All of this is not to say that science is a waste of time, or that it should be rejected. Rather, I think it is very important to have a realistic view of how science operates in order to have the right attitude towards results of research. When assuming that scientific results are absolute truth, it can lead to dangerous situations. Rather, if scientific research is assessed with a healthy dose of scepticism, it is easier to get a more accurate interpretation of the results and of our state of understanding.

Science plays a crucial role in our society, in providing advances in medical treatments, improving our quality of life, and in understanding the world around us. However, we must all take responsibility for what we choose to believe.

Thoughts on Evolution

Posted on by
Reply

Monkey see Monkey do

If you ask the vast majority of those who believe in Evolution why the do so, the most common answer you will hear is “because it is scientifically proven”. Yes, there is a strong conviction within the collective consciousness that Evolution = Science = Fact. There is no need to dig deeper or look further for the truth. What I find particularly interesting is that there is a large number of people who are so violently convinced that Evolution is fact without even a basic understanding of what it is, how it works, or what the implications are.

This is not necessarily a criticism of those in the evolutionist camp. The same is painfully obvious with the creationists. I very much doubt that most individuals who profess to belong to a religion have ever read (let alone study) their religious text(s), or could even explain their beliefs based on said texts. This is a depressing consequence of our “critical thinking” (or lack thereof), our fierce aversion to thinking about the “bigger questions”, and ideological propaganda which we eat up like candy.

Survival of the Fittest

So then, what is Evolution? To answer this question, let’s first look at something called “Natural Selection”. The idea of advantageous genetic mutations being favoured in successive generations leading to subtle adaptations over time is a proven scientific fact. For example, if a species of bird move into a new geographic region where the seed husks are harder to open, and so those individuals with stronger beaks are more likely to eat more seeds, and therefore more likely to live long enough to have children and pass the genes for stronger beaks on to their offspring. Thus, after a number of generations, the average beak will be much stronger than their ancestors who originally moved into that new area.

Let us use a simple illustration to more clearly understand Natural Selection. With your TV, there are a number of different settings (brightness, contrast, colour mode, aspect ratio, and so on), which you experiment with to find the optimal settings for you. Perhaps you prefer watching TV late at night with the lights off, and so you might settle on a dimmer setting with slightly less contrast. However, through your experimentation with the settings, you cannot somehow create a new setting, only change the values of the existing settings.

The Theory of Evolution, however, elaborates on Natural Selection to try and suggest that, not only does it explain the changing “values of the settings”, but also that “new settings” are added, or more precisely, that new genetic code is added, not only mutated/changed. Thus, different species of fish could differ in size, shape and colour, but also (by virtue of evolution) develop a hip bone and eventually become a dog. 

In my opinion, this is the reason why many are confused by the word “Theory of evolution”, and the idea that it is a scientific fact. To clarify, Natural Selection is a scientific fact, but Evolution is a theory which is based on that scientific fact. Unfortunately, this theory which explains speciation has become so elaborate to the extent that it is used to explain away the need for God, and to ridicule creationists. This seems nonsensical to me, as science can only hope to explain how things happen, not why things happen.

What Darwin had to say about it

In his seminal work, “The Origin of Species”, Darwin explained that in order for Evolution to occur, there are three prerequisites:

  1. Organisms which can reproduce
  2. Genetic mutation at the time of reproduction
  3. Competition over a scarce resource

We can all agree that these three conditions are met at the moment. But when we consider that this might not have always been the case, we are faced with the first major flaw with the theory: Where did the first cellular organism capable of reproduction come from? Before a cellular organism “developed” the ability to reproduce, two of the three requirements for evolution to exist were not met. The consequence of this is that the best we could say at this point is that evolution could be possible after the first reproducing organism(s) existed.

Darwin also acknowledged that his theory could not explain the Cambrian explosion; an event which occurred about 540 million years ago, where all current families of animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record with no transitional forms between the different animal types. Here we have major flaw number 2.

SETI should look Down not Up

SETI, or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life, is an initiative to scan through signals received from outer space for clues of intelligent life. Now, how does one find such proof of intelligent life from electromagnetic waves picked up from space? Basically, patterns which convey information. The white noise of space is quite random, but an alien radio signal would have intricate and complex patterns containing (possibly) decipherable information.

Although the SETI project has thus far failed to find any such sign, many might be surprised to learn that such an alien sign does in fact exist, and we have been studying it for many years. I’ll give you a clue: What is a source of huge amounts of complex information which is not man-made? …. The answer: DNA.

DNA is the most sophisticated data storage mechanism we know of, storing 215 petabytes of data per gram. The microscopic machinery to manipulate the data contained in the DNA is so precisely synchronised that if any part were not to work correctly, mitosis would not be possible, and again two out of three requirements for evolution would be impossible.

Thus, Evolutionary theory does not seem to be self-consistent in this instant and offers no hint of how it could possibly have begun. However, we see direct evidence of intelligent life in the design of DNA.

The Big Bang

Following on from this idea of beginnings, let’s talk of a moment of the first beginning; the Big Bang. Current scientific estimates put this event at about 13.7 billion years ago, where spacetime first began (General Relativity supports this as showing a spacetime singularity at time 0). The Big Bang is thought to have been caused by a large amount of energy originating from outside of the spacetime continuum. What is very interesting about this is, not only does science (and by extension, Evolution) not even hint at where this energy could come from, it ironically fits extremely well with the idea of Intelligent Design.


Bacterial flagellum “motor”

Irreducible Complexity

A much-debated topic between Evolutionists and those supporting Intelligent Design is that of “Irreducible Complexity“, which is an argument that states:

“certain biological systems cannot evolve by successive small modifications to pre-existing functional systems through natural selection.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity

A famous example often cited is the bacterial flagellum, which functions like a motor, propelling the bacterium around its environment. The argument is that if just one of the many proteins which make up this motor is missing or out of place, the motor fails to function and becomes a great hindrance rather than an advantage. Therefore it could not have evolved step-by-step, as it is only evolutionary advantageous in its final form.

If you do some digging, you will discover that there has been an ongoing battle between scientists regarding this, with many theories of how supposedly irreducibly complex structures could actually be reducible. However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that these counter-arguments are purely theoretical and hypothetical, with little to no proof that these structures are, in reality, not irreducibly complex.

To make the situation worse, Evolutionists often make the ignorant claim that Intelligent Design is not supported by science and that there is no peer-reviewed research in favour of Intelligent Design. This is demonstrably false, and just a result of the issue I mentioned at the beginning of this article, where us humans do not like to look deeper into uncomfortable issues such as where we came from, and so on. Evolutionism is thus, in my mind, just another type of organised religion, with its own dogma and zealotism.

If you would like to see a detailed list of peer-reviewed papers, you can download it here.

Larger Questions

For me, the biggest problem with Evolution is that it shrinks the larger question of the origin of the universe for the layman into a theory about speciation. This is problematic, as science has yet to come up with a theory to explain questions such as why the laws of physic are the way they are? Why are the universal constants precisely tuned to enable chemical reactions which support life? and so on…

In conclusion, Evolution is a theory (practically a religion) which has many flaws, and many people who have never studied it in any detail hide behind the “scientific nature” of the theory to avoid having to deal with thoughts and questions of an existential or metaphysical nature. In addition, because this theory is supported by academic, social and political authorities, the abundance of evidence in support of Intelligent Design are ignored, ridiculed and largely ignored. In this era of “Critical Thinking”, we are in denial of the fact that we are just as subjective and ignorant as ever before.

Feeding the Trolls

Posted on by
1

Two phenomena have arisen relatively recently in human history which have, in my opinion, greatly contributed to the development of what is now referred to as “internet trolls“; The attempt at cultivating critical thinking within the education system, and hyperconnectivity.

The Ultimate Megaphone

Un unforeseen consequence of Moore’s Law has been that technological advances have brought about fundamental behavioural changes faster than society is able to adapt. Suddenly everyone is hyperconnected constantly, yet we have not yet had time to integrate this into our social protocols, or emerge compensatory strategies to ensure the continuity of our social structures and balance with other important aspects of our intrapersonal and interpersonal lives.

Some may argue that such disruptive technology, and the power to shatter existing social structures, has done a lot of good; and in a limited scope I feel such an outlook is very valid. However, consider the worrying prevalence of porn addiction, internet addiction, and cyber bullying, and we see that, as a species, we have not adapted to this new ‘way of being’ in a healthy manner.

Consider the difference between a verbal conversation between individuals in private and a recorded message on the public internet which will virtually never die, and which can exist completely independently of our identity if we choose to be anonymous. Possibly this juxtapositioning begins to illuminate potential consequences, and thus responsibilities which may or may not be taken into account. When we speak with another person face-to-face, we have been socialised to treat them a certain way, depending on who they are, and to expect consequences of our actions. We could have strongly negative consequences if we insult or enrage the other person. Such personal consequences disappear when you are sitting on the other end of the world behind a computer screen.

There is a branch of psychological theory referred to as “Constructivism“, in which it is argued that we continuously “recreate” our identity every time we interact. We are thus a slightly different version of ourselves when we are called into the principal’s office compared to the version when playing cards with a cousin. So what version of ourselves do we become when sitting alone in front of a computer screen? I think it is an interesting question.

Jaques Lacan similarly proposed that through social interactions, we are “interpolated” into societal roles according to ideological frameworks in which we exist. If we think about this in terms of online interactions, what role are do we assume when interacting online. Perhaps the lack of consequences and pervasive hostility results in us unconsciously constructing a version of ourselves which express behaviours which simultaneously allow for unfiltered expression at the same time defending against the attacks of others.

Bigots Anonymous

Since the 1990’s, there has been great emphasis on developing “Critical Thinking” skills in many educational institutions around the world.

“The aim of Critical Thinking is to promote independent thinking, personal autonomy and reasoned judgment in thought and action.”

https://sta.uwi.edu/ct/ctande.asp

This is a great initiative and the world certainly needs more people with well developed reasoning and judgement. However, coupled with the constantly decreasing standards of education, the result has been to imbue the younger generations with the idea that they expect to always have an opinion about everything, without the rigorous requirements of academia of former years. This generation does not feel any obligation to base opinions on facts, research, or even logical arguments. This mental laziness is widespread and very common. Of course one cannot generalise and there are always a minority of brilliant minds which rise above the obstacles of the education institutions.

I believe that another reason for the emergence of this type of behaviour is the focus of institutional education has, like almost all other aspects of society, become driven by commercial and political interests.

In the past, education took the form of apprenticeships, where the apprentice would learn from the master over many years to hone a particular skill until they too had master over it. Then during the Renaissance period education became more holistic, introducing academic pursuits, to open the mind, and to explore thoughts and ideas on a broad range of subjects.

Today, such noble idealism is a thing of the past, and the curriculum has become self-serving in the sense that students are taught how to pass exams. This is in the context of an extraordinarily artificial system of Key Performance Indicators, metrics, ogive curves, standardisations, and restrictive regulations.

source: xkcd

Power to the Idiots

It is thus my opinion that the combination of limitless self-entitlement to unfounded opinions and the anonymous, depersonalised, consequence-less internet, leads to a type of “self construction” in which bigotry and cyberbullying thrive.

It is perhaps an extremely unpopular opinion to have, but it amazes me the extent to which individuals feel the absolute right to have an opinion about things that they have no knowledge of. The authority of experts is no longer valued as before, and what seems to now give credibility is the number of “followers” you have, rather than how knowledgeable you are.

I hope that a fundamental shift in education on a global scale is around the corner, as I do not see the current system being very sustainable.

The Anti-cancer Gene

Posted on by
Reply

Our built-in super hero

In all humans, there is a special gene which creates a protein called “Tumor protein p53“. This little protein is sometimes referred to as the “guardian gene” because it protects DNA from the mutations which cause cancer. It does this by activating DNA repair proteins and pausing the cell growth cycle for long enough that problems in the DNA can be discovered and corrected. If the DNA is damaged beyond repair, then this protein will ‘push the self-destruct button’ of the cell; a process called apoptosis, thus preventing the damaged DNA from being passed on to the cell’s offspring.

In order for Cancer to develop, there needs to be a bunch of specific changes to the DNA which accumulate over multiple cell divisions as mutations. These changes activate what are referred to as “oncogenes“, which are genes that cause the cancerous behaviour of cells. Now, when the guardian protein is doing its job, these dangerous changes to the DNA are not allowed to continue. Conversely, when cancer does develop, often this gene is one of the first things to be switched off.

So how do we switch it back on?

The “On” Switch

The beauty of natural medicine is that it supports health. Thus, rather than trying to kill cancer cells with harsh radiation, or poisonous chemotherapy, a naturopathic approach assists the body in strengthening the natural defences against cancer. In the case of damage to the DNA resulting in the deactivation of our guardian gene, there are some natural ways to reactivate it, effectively “flipping the on switch”.

Some examples of botanicals which have this ability are:

  • Capsaicin, the active component in chilli peppers [1].
  • Green Tea Polyphenols (EGCG) [2].
  • Curcumin, the active compound in Turmeric [3].

Another problem that should be addressed is the suppression of the guardian gene in the first place. Often, this gene is switched off by the MDM2 protein. Luckily for us, there are also some natural ways to prevent this.

Some examples of botanicals which prevent the MDM2-p53 interaction are:

Closing Remarks

Whilst naturopathic medicine is very useful in both preventing and treating cancer, some important points should be kept in mind. Firstly, you should not rely on Naturopathic medicine to cure cancer alone. It can be very useful in conjunction with conventional treatments or used by itself when conventional medicine has run out of options. Secondly, do not try and self-medicate with natural products. There are naturopaths out there that specialise in oncology. Seek out expert guidance. 

There is a common misconception that natural medicine is safe. This is not at all true. For example, with EGCG in Green Tea, you would need to drink five cups of green tea to get a therapeutic dose of EGCG. However, this would be quite bad for your health due to the high caffeine content and the potential depletion of Vitamin E in the liver and kidneys. A trained naturopath can assist you in using these natural products correctly, and in a safe way.

References

  1. Reactivation of mutant p53 by capsaicin
  2. Pro-apoptotic and migration-suppressing potential of EGCG, and the involvement of AMPK in the p53-mediated modulation of VEGF and MMP-9 expression
  3. The effects of turmeric (curcumin) on tumour suppressor protein (p53) and estrogen receptor (ERα) in breast cancer cells
  4. Natural products targeting the p53-MDM2 pathway and mutant p53: Recent advances and implications in cancer medicine

Conquering the Common Cold

Posted on by
1

The common cold – such an innocent-sounding ailment – is to blame for around 40% of all time off from work, and about 30% of school absenteeism. And it certainly is quite common; adults can expect to get between 4 to 6 colds per year, and children about 6 to 8. Despite the pervasiveness of this disease, there is little consensus on how to define, diagnose and treat it. [1] In this post I’d like to talk about what exactly is the Common Cold, discuss some common misconceptions and then look at what we can do about it from a Naturopathic perspective.

What is a Cold?

I notice that there is a lot of uncertainty about what is the difference between a cold and the flu. Quite simply, the flu is an infection by an influenza virus (from where the common name “flu” comes from). The “common cold”, on the other hand, is also a viral infection, but it could be one of hundreds of different viruses which cause the infection (rhinoviruses being the most common). It is generally understood that a cold occurs when the body is run down and the immune system is weakened to the extent that viruses which normally are no threat are able to overcome the body’s normal defence systems and cause an infection.

Common Misconceptions

1 – Inflammation is the enemy

When we are sick with a cold and flu, the symptoms are as a result of the inflammatory processes in the body. Something I consistently see in the medical community is a reflex of suppressing these inflammatory processes. A patient arrives at their family doctor with a cough, and the doctor prescribes cough syrup. A patient has a sore throat, and the doctor prescribes a throat spray. What these “treatments” accomplish is to suppress healthy systems in the body. For example, throat sprays often constrict blood vessels in the throat so that the immune cells cannot get into the infected tissue which then traps the killed microbes in mucus to be taken out of the body through coughing. So you use these “cold and flu treatments” and feel better because the inflammatory processes are suppressed. However, it is those same inflammatory processes which are trying to get rid of the bad microbes trying to overtake your body. Suppressing inflammation just serves to temporarily make you feel better whilst at the same time prolonging the illness in many cases. It does not address the underlying causes: weak immune system and microbial infection. We need to understand that these symptoms are our friends, not our enemies! [4]

2 – Vitamin C to the rescue!

When people (including many Medical Doctors) think of treating the common cold, the first thing that comes to mind is Vitamin C, and lots of it. This is, in part, due to the Nobel Laureate, Linus Pauling, publishing a book in 1970 where he argued that megadoses of vitamin C should be used for treating colds. Despite a lot of research to the contrary, this idea is still in the public consciousness. Although regularly taking Vitamin C has been shown to reduce the severity of colds, it’s therapeutic use at the time of illness has been scientifically shown to be of no value [5].

3 – Good Ol’ Antibiotics

Unfortunately, a disturbing number of people (including many Medical Doctors) turn to antibiotics at the first hint of infection. However, it is a well-established fact [2] that antibiotics are of no use for treating the common cold. Unfortunately, this common practice is highly dangerous, with risks for both the individual patient (such as Dysbiosis) as well as for society at large [3].

What can be done?

Thankfully there are a number of things that can be done if we use a bit of logical reasoning and solid scientific research.

1 – Rest and Hydration

The first goal should be to help out your immune system to do its job. For this, you should rest as much as possible once the symptoms of a cold have started. Most colds will go away on their own within a few days (some symptoms may last around 3 weeks), so have patience with yourself and remember that the more you rest, the better your body can fight the infection.

You should also try and keep your throat hydrated. Note that it is not about consuming liquid, but rather about keeping your throat moist. You are essentially trying to flush away microbes from the infected areas. So for this, you can regularly sip water or herbal teas. There are some useful things to add to your drinks, such as lemon and honey. Lemon is an amazing natural disinfectant, and honey is a very versatile natural anti-microbial.

2 – Zinc

It has been discovered that Zinc lozenges have been very useful in fighting throat infections involved in the common cold [6]. It is important to use the lozenges, and not syrup or tablets, as interaction with saliva is essential for activating the zinc to exert a direct antiviral activity. The recommended lozenges to use are those containing zinc acetate or gluconate and try and avoid those containing citric acid, sorbitol or mannitol. You can take one lozenge up to every 2 hours whilst the symptoms persist.

3 – Botanical Medicine

Two herbal remedies which have proven to be of great benefit are Echinacea and South African Geranium. Echinacea is better early on in the infection, and I personally prefer to take it as a tincture with 20 drops in a small amount of water every two hours. It exerts direct local effects and is useful in all upper respiratory infections.With South African Geranium (also referred to as pelargonium), you can also take this as a tincture and has been shown to significantly reduce both the symptoms, as well as the duration of common colds [7].

References

[1] PubMed: Common Cold
[2] Center for Disease Control. “Antibiotic use for the Common Cold”
[3] Llor & Bjerrum (2014). “Antimicrobial resistance”
[4] Ptizzoccaro (2016). “The Symptom as Ally, not Enemy”
[5] Hemila & Chalker (2013). “Vitamin C for preventing and treating the Common Cold”
[6] Singh M, Das RR. “Zinc for the common cold“.
[7] Lizogub, Riley & Heger (2007). “Efficacy of a pelargonium sidoides preparation in patients with the common cold: a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.“