Somewhere on the Internet, I commented about research. And someone else took exception and asserted that many people do research! They look all kinds of stuff up on Google! They read things the AAFP has written! They do lots of research!
Well, my friends, when a scientist talks about researching a topic in the literature, she means 'reading primary sources.' Google need not apply.
I spend much of my day driving this home. Sometimes I think I'm talking to myself. It's like the 17-yr-old brain (and some much older) cannot comprehend a world outside of google.
ReplyDeleteIt's becoming more and more frequent that my husband and I look at each other and confess we simply don't understand how ordinary people -- people who don't read, who don't think, who don't research -- can function. For the medieval re-enactment group we're a part of, we recently both entered a "documentation lite" competition. For most people that consisted of a piece of paper on which they scribbled what they entered, e.g., "medieval Latin song". For him, his best attempt at minimal documentation was 8 pages (ok, 5 were photographs) and citations of three different primary sources. (I managed to get mine down to just 1 page, with pictures.)
ReplyDeleteReminds me of this piece- what consitutes an 'expert' or Jenny McCarthy isn't one:
ReplyDeletehttp://biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com/2011/11/what-makes-expert-in-science-how-about.html