Spray Paint

A drug-design chemist looks at quackery and concludes that Scamorama. In the Pipeline:

the process of separating the gullible from their money is timeless. There are gloomy thoughts to be had about the state of science education, that such things are believed, but education is a thin spray-painted layer on the surface of a brain that wants miracles and wants to believe.

Indeed Phuddy-Duds like me are prone to use our fact-collection and theory-building skills to support the beliefs we want to hold. And the belief I most want to hold is that education, indeed publicly-funded formal education despite its manifold factory-flaws, is worthwhile anyway -- some of the time, it turns out we've learned to notice facts that conflict with our beliefs, instead. Some of the time we actually learn something new, especially in the STEM fields (STEAM fields? Maybe the arts are included) where what teacher says is not the touchstone. Sometimes. Enough of the time.


Or then again, maybe not.