Not Even Wrong: Seneff And Samsel Debunked By The Seralini Crew

By Hank Campbell — Nov 09, 2017
Upon seeing what he deemed a poorly-constructed paper by a colleague in physics, Wolfgang Pauli is apocryphally said to have, "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
Credit: Stephan Neidenbach

Upon seeing what he deemed a poorly-constructed paper by a colleague in physics, Wolfgang Pauli is apocryphally said to have, "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."

By that he meant the author didn't even have enough command of the basics to be incorrect, it was just gibberish. This now applies to the work of MIT computer scientist Stephanie Seneff and whatever Anthony Samsel claims to have expertise in. When a collaborator of a true anti-science crank, Gilles-Éric Séralini, famous for weird claims like that GMOs are a "pesticide sponge" and who manufactured a (now retracted) paper claiming that rats somehow get cancer if they eat GMO feed, debunks you, you are "not even wrong" by people who are "not even wrong."

I don't even know what the term for a higher order "not even wrong" should be, so if you have an idea help me out in a comment.

Seneff is famous among biologists the way fellow computer scientist Mark Jacobson is among climate scientists: They would ordinarily appreciate any help, science is a big umbrella after all, but they wish they would either be correct or quiet. 

It is not to be. And so it looks bad when a suspect junk scientist writes in what some consider a pay-to-play predatory journal that you are not even qualified to be in their circle.



 

Whew, "a deductive reasoning approach based on syllogism" and "at best unsubstantiated theories, speculations or simply incorrect" - those are fighting words in evidence-based circles, so I can't imagine what mud-slinging will happen in a group that thinks mainstream science is a conservative conspiracy against nature.

You can read the whole thing here if you don't get the gist. They believe glyphosate is toxic despite all of the evidence against them but even they don't in word salads about toxicology and biology that might as well be magic. Samsel keeps his Internet comments private on Disqus but you can get a sample by his raving on this article.

They are not alone in dismissing the most fringe activists against agricultural science. Famed anti-GMO activist Michael Hansen of Consumers Union (parent of Consumer Reports) who has been on The Dr. Oz Show numerous times spouting his own conspiracy beliefs about science, thinks Samsel is so loony he should be avoided lest they lose what little credibility they have.

 

Teacher and pro-science-gadfly-for-activists Stephan Neidenbach created this graphic when he saw the paper.

https://t.co/PDTRgT8NKN pic.twitter.com/DJH8Mqw5eK

— Stephan Neidenbach (@welovegv) November 8, 2017

 

I bet if Twitter had existed in Wolfgang Pauli's time he'd have done the same thing.