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Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science Hardcover – November 1, 2007

by John Grant (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
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In Discarded Science, John Grant took a fascinating look at all the things science got wrong through the centuries. But at least those were honest mistakes. Grant’s equally absorbing follow-up examines something more sinister: deliberate hoaxes and frauds. He takes us through a rogue’s gallery that features faked creatures, palaeontological trickery, false psychics, and miracle cures that aren’t so miraculous. See how ideology, religion, and politics have imposed themselves on science throughout history, from the Catholic Church’s influence on cosmology to Nazi racist pseudoscience to the Bush Administration’s attempt to deny climate change. The themes, while entertaining as ever, are serious and timely.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Facts, Figures & Fun
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    4.75 x 1.25 x 7.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1904332730
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1904332732
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Facts, Figures & Fun
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 1, 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1904332730
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1904332732
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.75 x 1.25 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

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John Grant

John Grant

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John Grant is the author of more than seventy books, including the critically acclaimed Discarded Science, Corrupted Science, and Bogus Science. In addition to his popular science writing, Grant is a prolific science fiction and fantasy writer. He has won two Hugo Awards, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a number of other international literary awards. He coedited with John Clute The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and wrote all three editions of The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney’s Animated Characters; both encyclopedias are standard reference works in their field. Under his real name, Paul Barnett, he has written several books and run the world-famous fantasy-art-book imprint Paper Tiger, for this latter work winning a Chesley Award and a nomination for the World Fantasy Award. For more on this prolific author, see www.johngrantpaulbarnett.com.

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3.7 out of 5 stars
34 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Jose F. Obregon-Plaza
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2018
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Good descriptions of the problems not publicized.
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  • C. M. Stahl
    4.0 out of 5 stars If Corrupted Science were the reader’s first foray into the history of bad science there is much to learn and many ideas ...
    Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    There are many writers who view themselves as iconoclasts in terms of science. They want to render asunder any notions of science being a solid tool of enlightened thinking. Their approach is to gainsay scientific information such as the Anthropogenic climate change in some cases. In others it is either a post-modern or fundamentalist religion that sparks their furor.

    In those examples the books and their conclusions are most often filled with banal and subjective tropes. Some books such as those published by Regnery Press, are simply filled with lies. John Grant’s book Corrupted Science does not fall into either of the suggested categories. He states from the beginning that “Facts do not lie”. Their interpretation can be distorted of course.

    Grant is clearly motivated by politics however and the corrupted science he proffers as examples are weighing heavily on notions such as Nazi science and global warming denial. He does back them up with solid references but as he admits from the beginning, the pursuit of science starts from the subjective ideas of scientists and those notions are largely culturally based.

    With the spate of retractions from major (and minor) scientific publications currently, we are witness to several forms of corruption. They come from several causes ranging from fairly benign data sloppiness to the fear of not publishing enough. They also are extremely egregious in the case of Woo Suk Hwang and his fraudulent publications on cloning in 2004 or Andrew Wakefield’s outrageous claims that vaccines cause autism.

    Grant examines reasons form scientific fraud and they include personal grudges and animosity in the case of Arthur Eddington and his feud with former student Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Sometimes they are simply a result of cherry picking data in order to enhance one’s own research, publication numbers and personal status.

    These are all part of a crescendo that leads to his main culprit and that is science based on ideology. Twisting or simply creating lab results that bolster for instance Stalin’s reliance on “vernalization” or Hitler’s “Aryan science” have wreaked havoc on millions of people over the years and did not enhance science at all. Grant is particularly harsh regarding Bush’s reliance on industry led research that favored big business.

    The book is fairly interesting but is replete with Grant’s own personality. It is a bit outdated given events that have occurred during the eight years since its publication. More of his examples than not, have been written about much so his additional information tends to be somewhat peripheral.

    If Corrupted Science were the reader’s first foray into the history of bad science there is much to learn and many ideas to pursue for further research.
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  • Jim
    3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This guy has an amazing grasp of history of science. Parts of the book are excellent reading.

    But there is a down side. If you hate (passionately) George Bush and tend to ridicule anti-marxists then you will enjoy all of this book. But if you are a conservative or a theist then you will not like some chapters.

    I have a habit of mentally constructing counter arguments when I read dogma in books; it's a game I enjoy. So extreme rhetoric does not bother me. However, skip the book if you do not enjoy reading some chapters that might remind you of scientism as it might be discussed at the local Progressives club.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Cat Lady
    5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! An Anti- anti-intellectualism book, usable by nearly everyone.
    Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2020
    Format: Kindle
    I read this book as a pre-release e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.

    Contemporary news articles and websites have a distinct anti-scientific bias, all the while telling us of some new “wow” discovery. Some are prematurely released, some only give part of the story and others outright frauds. Conspiracy Central has their own followers, that things are the way they are because of some conspiracy by some group for whatever reasons go into their agenda. Some are outright deniers of science, often replacing it with “ancient knowledge” that appeals to that person. Each area has its own chapter so as to keep the types of problems seen together. Investigative journalists have exposed many papers to have been ghost-written, often by corporations seeking to sell products based on the research in the paper(s), and an even larger problem is the listing of a well-known researcher as the primary author of a paper when he hasn’t seen it. Other scientific papers are ghost-written, with or without permission from the paper’s listed authors, who haven’t seen the paper. Bad science will be ousted by good science, and even good science will be superseded by better science in the future – but this process works slowly. However, corrupted science, whether by fraud or ideology has a nasty tendency to become accepted, and to send scientific advances back by decades.

    Many of the things we learned in elementary school which are true attributed to the wrong person – who merely republished or restated an earlier scientist’s work without attribution.

    There is a long chapter on medical science. There are a lot of historical quack cures, as well as contemporary ones, some popularly believed, some sold as “alternative” treatments – often making vast sums of money. Some by people who genuinely believe the hype, some are knowingly selling people what has been proven to not work, or at least not been proven to work. At best, these just waste money. At worst, it delays a patient receiving actual treatment until after it’s too late to do any good. They also waste research time and scarce research grant money for no benefit.

    The question Is how to tell the difference – whether you are a researcher, corporation seeking to use the science, or an individual. Your doctor may be helpful, but doctors are not exempt from reading and accepting fraudulent or un-reviewed papers, and acting on them. Neither are scientists exempt from seeing what they want to see or what they’ve been trained to see, even in the face of measurements and data telling them that the contrary is proven. Cultural beliefs and a-priori beliefs about the matter effect the conclusions of scientific studies, even very good ones. This is part of how some data and concepts have been abused to prove a racial superiority or inferiority, with some disastrous results.

    All of human kind suffers from this corrupted science. It's far far easier to start a lie and get it believed than it is to get the lie out of common discourse once it's exposed.
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  • Amazons Customer
    1.0 out of 5 stars Disinfo
    Reviewed in Germany on August 31, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The very fake science this book is supposedly exposing is used to spread the lies of man-made global warming and others. Waste of money, couldn't stomach to read this garbage through.
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  • Dr Mike Sutton
    3.0 out of 5 stars Corrupted Science Unintentionally Facilitates Corruption of Science
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2021
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    This is a must read book for anyone interested in knowing the difference between what is real and what is fake. Its Scottish author, John Grant, provides evidence of the debunking - by others - of many ingrained myths.

    This useful pocket book reads very well indeed. John grant can certainly write clearly and precisely and engage the reader.

    Corrupted Science is a book packed with a variety of well organized detail. However, he being a Scot, I expected Grant to be familiar with the prior published complete and detailed theory of evolution by natural selection by his fellow Scot, the Scottish Enlightenment thinker, Patrick Matthew.

    Grant makes much of the involvement of the Christian Church in embracing the theory of evolution by natural selection and of a minority of religious cranks in rejecting it. In that regard, it is notable, therefore, that John Grant makes no mention that Darwin kept what he called "the Creator" in three editions of the Origin of Species and Patrick Matthew mocked such a notion in his book of 1831, which Darwin and Wallace were both compelled by Matthew to admit contained the entire detailed prior published theory of evolution by natural selection. Moreover, there is a mountain of publication record evidence that both Darwin and Wallace corrupted the principles of science by plagiarising Matthew's theory and that Darwin told proven serial lies to deny other naturalist's (known to have influenced him and his influencers) had prior read and cited Matthew's book. Wallace's Sarawak paper's editor, Selby, cited Matthew's book before Darwin or Wallace wrote a word on the topic of evolution by natural selection. Darwin (1859) even four word shuffled Matthew's (1831) original name for his theory "natural process of selection" to his own coinage "process of natural selection".

    In these regards, by simply and credulously accepting the great myth of the mere story of Darwin's and Wallace's (claimed) originality, without addressing these contesting proven facts from the historic publication record, Grant is facilitating the very thing his book is supposed to be against. I hope a new edition of "Corrupted Science" will address this most important error on its author's part.
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  • Jabbly Brown
    4.0 out of 5 stars Science the pure pursuit?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2008
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    I think people who are interested in science and its achievements like to think that it's relatively unbiased in a political sense - it's always been accepted that some level of bias exists. This book shows that the political interference that has been in existence for many, many years is actually getting much worse not better even in democratic based societies. It also covers a great deal of corruption for personal gain so it's not just politics.

    Overall a good read for anyone who wants to understand more about why science is becoming corrupted by governments to use it for their own ends and the impact that this is having.
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  • Richard Fitzpatrick
    3.0 out of 5 stars A biased view.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I was initially enjoying this book. However, as I progressed through it I became aware that the very subject of "open minded science" that the author supported was severely curtailed by his preaching of the fact of Global Warming; and caused by us humans. Indeed he portrayed it as a closed subject and that there were no more questions to be asked. This ethos actually goes in tandem with the very short mindedness of some scientists and governments that he seemingly abhors and quotes as being near criminal in their closed way of thinking, thus obstructing the very open science he purports to believe in; and heaven help you if you are still open minded about global warming, which he continually deems a fact. I believe though the jury is still out on this subject and am prepared to listen to both sides of the argument.
    Most disappointing!
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  • Prof.Del
    4.0 out of 5 stars short and to the point
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2013
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    A damning indictment of some of the ways scientists try to be the grand viziers of their time, a good bedtime reading
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