Hacker News Reader

Comment by spamizbad | Hacker News Reader

I will just say this:

Interest in developing and deploying nuclear power dramatically declined after Three Mile Island and the Chernobyl incidents. This lead to an increased reliance on carbon-based energy sources like Coal and Natural Gas, likely killing hundreds of thousands over the years.

I think skittish virologists rightly concluded that a lab-leak mea culpa would have a similar effect on virology and perhaps broader medical research. The author disagrees, but history has shown us what happens.

If Three Mile Island and Chernobyl had been covered up and left to conspiracies the earth would be several degrees cooler right now.

View on HN

Excuse me, but scientists are not public policy makers. Their job is to follow the evidence, not publish based on what they think will happen if they do.

Scientists are members of society too. They are not automatons.

If scientists do not publish their unbiased results and instead bend their results to fit personal or public expectation, their credentials should be revoked in the name of science itself. There is no greater crime against humanity that to conceal or compromise scientific truth.

Let us know when you have an "unambiguous truth detector" so we can start to revoke credentials. In the meantime, let's understand that scientists frequently allow their personal biases to leak into their papers.

I’m not talking about absolute truth. I am pointing my finger at those “scientists” that falsify or cherry-pick data sets, do not publish results that contradict their organization’s agenda, and similarly commit flagrant acts of dishonesty.

Ah, well, the best you can do is read RetractionWatch and see that a subset of those scientists have been identified, and fired.

And typically scientists are part of the portion of commettes that are unelected that help determine policy designs in the US.

They have one job. It's called "science." They go to school for that.

Other people, including the voting public, have the job of determining policy based on what they find.

If they follow this particular line of evidence (which requires them excepting their own gross negligence) then not only would they be out of a job but may find themselves in jail.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

Total nonsense. Chernobyl was covered up by the most brutal and inhumane regime ever. It's this exact cover up and lack of responsibility that disgusted a lot people and lead to the hatred and fear nuclear energy is drowning in.

There will always be cavemen that will fear what's beyond the cave exit, but they are powerless, albeit vocal, and are not responsible for the stagnation of nuclear research.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com