IN THE BEGINNING

Is That a Fact?

"Is that a fact?" "They say that ..." "I heard that ..." Just listen in on a few conversations around the water cooler and it won't be long before one of these phrases rings out. After all, this is the Communication Age. We are connected through cell phones, radio, TV, and, of course, the web. We talk, we Tweet, we link, we text, we Facebook. We are informed. But in many cases, unfortunately, we are also misinformed.

We suffer from information overload. Just Google a subject and within a second, you can be flooded with a million references. It is therefore more important than ever to be able to analyze those references and know how to separate sense from nonsense. And that's where learning comes in. Information has to be scrutinized in the light of what is already known. But learning must be coupled with critical thinking. Confucius said it very well: "Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous."

The University of Google is well stocked with information, but its students are left to flounder when it comes to determining whether that information is reliable. Accounts of miraculous cancer cures, the rants of anti-vaccine activists, the exploits of so-called psychics, and the claims of various alternative healers may sound very seductive, but stand to lose their luster in the light of scientific education. It would, however, be incorrect to suggest that education is the vaccine against folly. The annals of history are replete with examples of educated people who have succumbed to nonsense. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a physician by training, believed in fairies and in communicating with the dead. Curiously, he was the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who was a logician extraordinaire and eschewed such silliness.

Indeed, it was Holmes who reminded us, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts." These days, those of us who follow Holmes's dictum and put evidence-based science on a pedestal often get criticized for challenging claims we consider to be unscientific. "They laughed at Galileo," the promoters of such claims say, "and at Columbus, and at the Wright Brothers." But, as Carl Sagan pointed out, the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Our best bet in order to differentiate the Bozos from the prospective Galileos is to push for more science education at all levels, with a strong emphasis on the importance of critical thinking. Furthermore, it should be realized that when it comes to separating sense from nonsense, mental prowess is not enough. Benjamin Franklin was right on when he opined, "Genius without education is like silver in a mine." Indeed, the value is there, but the silver is not of much use until you extract it. But how do you go about this extraction? How do we know who is right and who is wrong? How do we know what is a fact and what is not? How do I know what I claim to know? that is a question I had to contemplate recently when a student innocently asked me, "And how do you know that?"

I had just finished a lecture on toxicology in which I had described the problem of cyanide poisoning by cassava, a tuber similar to the potato that is a staple in some parts of Africa. However, with some varieties of cassava, there's an issue: if not properly processed, it can harbor a lethal amount of cyanide. (This is not the case with the cassava grown in the Caribbean.) But soaking the peeled tuber in water for several days releases enzymes that degrade the cyanide-storage compound linamarin, causing the toxic cyanide to be dissipated into the air as hydrogen cyanide. Unfortunately, cases of acute cyanide poisoning have occurred when famine conditions forced a shortening of the soaking time. Since even proper processing doesn't remove all the cyanide, chronic low-level exposure can lead to goiter or even konzo, a type of paralysis.

I've described the cyanide connection in lectures numerous...