249
votes
Accepted
Have mathematicians concluded that an Indian mathematical physicist has solved the Riemann Hypothesis?
Summary
The current version of the question asks two things:
Have mathematicians concluded that an Indian mathematical physicist has solved the Riemann Hypothesis?
No. There isn't a single ...
- 4,636
179
votes
Accepted
Did Euler make the elementary mistake √-2 √-3 = √6?
Euler did write this, but it was not a mistake! Euler's statement was correct under his own definition of the notation that he was using.
I looked at the PDF version of Elements of Algebra linked to ...
- 1,048
120
votes
Have the Covid-19 vaccines caused more deaths than Covid-19 itself did?
In essence this is all based on the self-published (November 2021) paper by political scientist Beattie. To quote the main problem with it:
Beattie claimed to have analyzed the “causal impact” of ...
- 59.6k
95
votes
Accepted
Are vaccinated children significantly less healthy than the unvaccinated, as recent study claims?
Almost all studies in this arena are correlative-based and not causation-based, so that I would take them all with a grain of salt. I would all suggest that Weiler and Thomas (2020) omit some ...
89
votes
Accepted
Do researchers receive no income from revenues arising from their published papers?
It's surprisingly hard to find a reference for this, as it is simply common knowledge among scientists. You don't get paid for publishing a paper in a scientific journal, sometimes you even have to ...
- 43.6k
89
votes
Accepted
Does Sci-Hub use malware and phishing to obtain researchers' login credentials?
The claim in the article that people who go to the Sci-Hub website are "very vulnerable to having their credentials stolen" is completely baseless, since Sci-Hub never asks for credentials ...
- 44.9k
66
votes
Accepted
Did The Lancet publish an account of a woman who did not age?
It seems that we don't know, but probably not.
What we have here is a notable person claiming without a reference that a peer reviewed journal supposedly reported on what many might consider a miracle....
- 3,846
64
votes
Have mathematicians concluded that an Indian mathematical physicist has solved the Riemann Hypothesis?
Following up @DanRomik's full, accurate answer: I was one of the thousands of people asked to study and comment upon the original document. After a brief look, I realized that it was of a fairly ...
- 599
63
votes
Accepted
Do hot peppers kill cancer?
To the best of my knowledge, the paper cited by the BBC is "Vanilloid receptor agonists and antagonists are mitochondrial inhibitors: how vanilloids cause non-vanilloid receptor mediated cell death" (...
- 876
43
votes
Are vaccinated children significantly less healthy than the unvaccinated, as recent study claims?
David Gorski has some (updated) comments about the methodology of the study such as:
The authors claim that RIOV “reflects the total number of billed office visits per condition per group, reflecting ...
- 59.6k
29
votes
Have the Covid-19 vaccines caused more deaths than Covid-19 itself did?
The study is not an accurate representation of facts, nor is it likely to be peer reviewed
A wider meta analysis of all available large COVID-19 safety studies was published by the Cochrane ...
- 391
28
votes
Does Susan Crockford have any scientific credentials related to polar bears?
I see no reason to doubt the statement.
Crockford herself says that she is
a different kind of polar bear expert than those that study bears in the field
indicating that she hasn't conducted ...
tim♦
- 51.9k
27
votes
Are vaccinated children significantly less healthy than the unvaccinated, as recent study claims?
It is worth noting that almost all of the conditions listed in the chart, unless they are unusually severe, do not need professional medical intervention. Skin rashes, coughs, minor to moderate asthma,...
- 1,541
24
votes
Did Euler make the elementary mistake √-2 √-3 = √6?
Euler did argue that √-2 √-3 = √6. Whether this is a mistake depends a lot on context. This appears in Euler's 1770 publication Elements of Algebra in Section I., Chapter XIII. (pdf link).
...
- 421
18
votes
Is an Instant Pot sufficient for "scientific sterilization"?
While it might work for some things it is not an acceptable replacement as it does not reach the same temperature and pressure levels that an autoclave can. An instant pot will reach 115-118°C while ...
- 5,074
17
votes
Whose account of the response to Michael Mann's original "hockey stick" analysis is correct?
Summary: I'd rate the first quote you gave 95% accurate, while the 2nd one only 5% or so, mainly because the bulk of McIntyre and McKitrick (MM henceforth) claims/attacks from their paper(s) turned ...
- 59.6k
15
votes
Accepted
Did Hippocrates make a statement similar to "like cures like"?
As formulated: yes. But it's more complicated. Homeopaths did not invent this principle. They interpret it in a peculiar and very far reaching way.
First, we should note that 'Hippokrates' is somewhat ...
- 44k
14
votes
Accepted
Did an apple falling on Newton's head help him build his theory of gravity?
The idea of the apple falling on Newton's head was invented by Isaac Disraeli (father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli) in the early 19th century, nearly 150 years after the supposed event.
...
- 2,604
12
votes
Is there no evidence that pre-publication peer review improves papers or detects errors or fraud?
Pre-publication peer review is not supposed to catch all errors or mistakes. It's a relatively superficial review (they aren't going to generally perform a rigorous study to validate or invalidate ...
- 9,688
12
votes
Does Sci-Hub use malware and phishing to obtain researchers' login credentials?
Does Sci-Hub rely on stolen credentials from unwitting researchers? Yes, at least in part. This is confirmed by Alexandra Elbakyan herself, although she also claims that Sci-Hub isn't the one ...
- 1,011
12
votes
Have mathematicians concluded that an Indian mathematical physicist has solved the Riemann Hypothesis?
"So, has the committee actually come to the conclusion that the Riemann Hypothesis has been solved by Kumar Eswaran?"
Yes they did: "On the basis of the assessment, this expert ...
- 559
10
votes
Is an Instant Pot sufficient for "scientific sterilization"?
An Instant Pot can almost perform "scientific-grade sterilization", it can steam sterilize for the purpose of food, and medicine, from the CDC,
Recognized minimum exposure periods for ...
- 29.5k
10
votes
How effective are face masks?
There was a good article on face masks on SSC way back in March, which reviewed pre-existing evidence on face masks.
I think a large reason the issue became contentious is the way that officials ...
- 347
9
votes
Is there no evidence that pre-publication peer review improves papers or detects errors or fraud?
While many agree that the current peer review system is not as effective as people would like it to be, it is not true that there is "no evidence that pre-publication peer review improved papers or ...
- 10.2k
8
votes
Accepted
When the WHO/CDC/NIH recommended wearing cloth masks, did they cite any scientific paper supporting their effectiveness?
As far as the WHO is concerned, they seem to only have changed their recommendation in June (much later than the CDC). Also note that it's a red herring what AAPS says about "respiratory ...
- 59.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Publication Bias in Climate Sensitivity Estimates
Going to try to expand some things from the comments into a full answer.
The meta view
The paper in question was published in Energy & Environment in 2015. It's since been cited 7 times, mostly by ...
- 451
6
votes
Did a Duke University study find these 8 factors as contributors to "peace of mind"?
Although I cannot find a legitimate source for that 8-point plan, there are a couple of key points in the information you have shared:
The citation that you mentioned above is not a professional/...
- 7,400
5
votes
Can up to 70% of scientific studies not be reproduced?
Yes, and the problem exists across many areas of science
The problem of reproducibility is attracting a lot more attention. A recent Nature News Feature discusses the possible causes of bad results ...
- 56.1k
4
votes
Have the Covid-19 vaccines caused more deaths than Covid-19 itself did?
The Australian study is flawed in that instead of looking at everyone that caught covid-19 and then examining the survival rate of these people according to vaccination status it only looked at the ...
- 141
2
votes
Are vaccinated children significantly less healthy than the unvaccinated, as recent study claims?
A quick glimpse on the article reveals that their study didn't have a control group, that is, children who received a saline shot and were told to be vaccinated. A difference in disease rate between ...
- 2,447
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