{"id":107,"date":"2014-06-16T15:22:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/?p=107"},"modified":"2014-06-16T18:27:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T22:27:59","slug":"io9-lists-10-scientific-ideas-that-scientists-wish-you-would-stop-misusing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/2014\/06\/16\/io9-lists-10-scientific-ideas-that-scientists-wish-you-would-stop-misusing\/","title":{"rendered":"io9 Lists “10 Scientific Ideas That Scientists Wish You Would Stop Misusing”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story is here<\/a>. It’s about \u00a0ten words with precise meanings for scientists that have been borrowed into the popular culture and misused by the public. This is the list sans commentary:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Proof<\/li>\n
  2. Theory<\/li>\n
  3. Quantum Uncertainty and Quantum Weirdness<\/li>\n
  4. Learned vs. Innate<\/li>\n
  5. Natural<\/li>\n
  6. Gene<\/li>\n
  7. Statistically Significant<\/li>\n
  8. Survival of the Fittest<\/li>\n
  9. Geologic Timescales<\/li>\n
  10. Organic<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I try to be good about most of these myself. I never use the word “proof;” I say “evidence” instead. And I never say “theory” when I know what I mean is “hypothesis.”<\/p>\n

    Hypothesis is a cooler word anyway, and you sound smarter when you say it. I often tap my chin just before I say it, which heightens the effect even more. To wit:<\/p>\n

    “I hypothesize, Clem,” Vandy said, tapping her chin thoughtfully, “that you’ll need at least ten times as much helium if you hope to get airborne in that deckchair.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The story is here. It’s about \u00a0ten words with precise meanings for scientists that have been borrowed into the popular…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,10,14],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-products","category-laws","category-media","category-schools","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/ts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}