Nasa’s James Webb Telescope may have discovered a molecule thought only to be produced by life.

  • Che Banana
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    11 year ago

    My comments was really made in jest…love the follow-up from everyone though! I also lov ehow science will always defer to “possible” instead of “definitively” no matter how much evidence there may be.

    • ShaunaTheDead
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      31 year ago

      That’s because that’s how science works. Discoveries are not considered to be statistically significant until they reach what’s called 5 sigma certainty which is approximately equivalent to saying that the chance that the discovery is wrong is 1 in 3.5 million.

      A lot of scientists would consider it unethical to claim a discover until you had provided enough data to reach 5 sigma certainty. When papers are published, it takes a lot of peer review before the hypothesis of that paper event approaches 5 sigma certainty, but that doesn’t mean that reporters aren’t happy to pick up the story.

      It’s just bad and/or unethical science journalism that are picking up on unproven papers because of the sensational title.