Scientific controversy

This article is about Issues of substantial disagreement among scientists. For fringe science, see Controversial science. For criticism, see Criticism of science.

Sustained scientific debate, sometimes scientific controversy[1] or persistent disagreement,[2] is any a substantial disagreement among scientists. A scientific controversy may involve issues such as the interpretation of data, which ideas are most supported by evidence, and which ideas are most worth pursuing.[1]

Controversies between scientific and non-scientific ideas are not within the realm of science and are not true scientific controversies.[3] A genuine scientific controversy entails an ongoing discussion within the wider scientific community.[4] Well known examples include the debate over the existence of the atom that lasted until the turn of the 20th century, the Bohr–Einstein debates, the linguistics wars, or the debate over the causes of ADHD.

  1. ^ a b Anne E. Egger, Ph.D., and Ph.D. Anthony Carpi. “Scientific Controversy: Process of Science.” Visionlearning, Visionlearning, Inc., 12 Feb. 2017, www.visionlearning.com/en/library/Process-of-Science/49/Scientific-Controversy/181.
  2. ^ The Globalisation of Scientific Controversy, www.bmartin.cc/pubs/08globalization.html.
  3. ^ What Controversy: Is a Controversy Misrepresented or Blown out of Proportion?, undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/sciencetoolkit_06.
  4. ^ McMullin, Ernan (1987-03-27). "Scientific controversy and its termination". Scientific Controversies. Cambridge University Press. pp. 49–92. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511628719.004. ISBN 978-0-521-25565-3.