RE: What science is and some common misconceptions about it
Absolutely great article. Hit on many great points. I am often shocked how people consider science to be 100% true without recognizing that our understanding is constantly evolving and scientific facts have continually been proven wrong and corrected as more evidence and understanding is gained.
I'm not saying that we cannot trust science - not by a long shot. Instead, I'm saying we need to be more critical of findings.
It seems more and more scientific discovery is being fueled by funding resources with preconceived ideas/opinions that lead to "expected" results regardless of the real scientific findings. In other words, you want next year's research funded, you better have findings that conform to the funding resource's goals or you'll be out of work next year. Also, more and more, scientific research seems to be a popularity or shock contest with the goal to be published in a journal regardless if you actually discovered or proved anything.
I like what John Arnold's foundation is doing.
http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/initiative/research-integrity/
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/john-arnold-waging-war-on-bad-science/
I agree on all your points. The scientific community is not without its problems and there as sometimes politics involved and people are sometimes motivated by being published and so on and so. But on the whole, with all of it's problems and imperfections, the scientific process has given us so much progress, it's truly staggering. The thing is, most problems both you and I have mentioned exists mainly on the cutting edge of science when research has not yet piled on the evidence. That's why one study should not be considered sufficient data to prove anything. But there are so many established science findings that are being disputed by misinformed members of the public which the findings themselves have already been proven to a very reasonable degree with tons and tons of experimental data.