Stuart Ritchie has written one of the best science books I have read in years with Science Fictions. It does not fall into the category of creative or path-breaking science, but in a single book it rips-off the facade that science and published research is always objective and does not make mistakes. Science is supposed to be about finding the truth without regard to the costs, yet Stuart meticulously shows how fraud, bias, negligence and hype run through-out current science. This may not represent most of science research but there is enough deviation from the truth to cause anyone to be more suspect and careful of what is being presented.
Fraud does occur because the rewards from being a top scientist are significant. Hype also surrounds many scientific results. What is aid to the press may not be reality. Biases exist because many scientists want to see a particular result and there just are mistakes from poor editing and reviews. If this happens with peer-reviewed research, it certainly is likely to occur with investment research. For those who follow academic research, beware, good results are often too good to be true.
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