|
This Report is published in full on Skeptical Investigations website: www.skepticalinvestigations.org/controversies/Euroskep_2005.htm
... So finally to the end of the Congress and the Sheldrake versus Nienhuys
spit-roast. Dr Sheldrake was on first. Sheldrake of course is not a
University professor. On the contrary, he comes well prepared, and he speaks
fluently and clearly, as if he really wants to communicate. He marshals his
arguments with precision, he provides (so far as I can judge) evidence for
his statements, and he brings his nul hypotheses out into the open, ready to
be shot down by the force of disproof.
In my judgement, Nienhuys' counterattack failed. Sheldrake mostly
discussed his work on animal behaviour. His hypotheses were there for the
taking. I cite just one example, on the apparently coordinated movements of
flocking birds. Sheldrake claimed that this coordination cannot be explained
by individual reactions, because eye-brain-muscular responses are too slow.
A quick check with Google after the congress gets me a paper in Nature in
1984 that seems to agree, and to provide an alternative, the Chorus Line
Hypothesis of Manoeuvre Coordination in Avian Flocks, which does not involve morphic resonance.
This is an alternative nul hypothesis that is testable. I don't know
whether it has been tested or not; but it should be easy to find out
(end note 8).
And I guess that there must be more, probably one for each of
Sheldrake's hypotheses. But it seems Dr Nienhuys had not done his
homework. He did not have any data or analyses to hand, and his
attack fizzled out.
So in the questionnaire that was (commendably) distributed to the
participants for filling in afterwards, I scored the encounter, not
"game set and match to Sheldrake", but at least Sheldrake 40,
Nienhuys love. A small cluster gathered around Sheldrake at the end
of the Congress. They seemed to be talking with him, rather than
pumelling him to the ground, so perhaps they agreed with me.
The opportunity of a real skeptical public test of opposing
hypotheses has been missed this time. Perhaps for Ireland in 2007?
R.C.HARDWICK
Richard Hardwick is a botanist. He lives in Brussels.
|