Computational science and pathological science

the best diet for a healthy life. One characteristic these examples all share is that they fade quickly, only to be replaced by a new ultimate answer. Sometimes rather than fading, the thrilling discovery has a second life in checkout-line tabloids. A few of these items are hoaxes, some are merely consequences of over-enthusiasm about preliminary results, but many are honest mistakes carried to the point of pathology. To be fair, let me say at the outset that computational science is not immune from this pathology. But a point I hope to make is that widespread availability of fairly high-end computing has shortened the life span of the science pathologies that occur in computing. The term “pathological science” goes back at least as far as Irving Langmuir’s famous 1953 General Electric lecture, in which he discussed things like N-rays and ESP. He described pathological science this way: