Skepticism

Internal methods of quality assessment should always be viewed with some level of skepticism because of the potential for bias in their execution and interpretation. For this reason, external methods of quality assessment also play an important role in quality assurance programs. One external method of quality assessment is the certification of a laboratory by a sponsoring agency. Certification is based on the successful analysis of a set of proficiency standards prepared by the sponsoring agency. For example, laboratories involved in environmental analyses may be required to analyze standard samples prepared by the Environmental Protection... 

Into the late 1940s, Nobel Laureate Robert S. Mulliken, a physical chemist at the University of Chicago, maintained a skeptical view regarding the future of applying the theories of physics to solving practical problems in chemistry (4,5). Subsequentiy, Mulliken (5) related that... 

Room temperature fusion reactions, albeit low probabiHty ones, are not a new concept, having been postulated in 1948 and verified experimentally in 1956 (22), in a form of fusion known as muon-catalized fusion. Since the 1989 announcement, however, international scientific skepticism has grown to the point that cold fusion is not considered a serious subject by most scientists. FoUow-on experiments, conducted in many prestigious laboratories, have failed to confirm the claims, and although some unexplained and intellectually interesting phenomena have been recorded, the results have remained irreproducable and, thus far, not accepted by the scientific community. 

Desire to Be Independent Yet Collaborate. Technical professionals are achievement-oriented and derive motivation from the work itself. This often means a need for increased participation in decision-making, as well as a natural skepticism and resistance to rapid changes in direction and tight control by managers. Collaboration and the desire for some form of teamwork also are a part of the professional s nature. 

At this point, analysts have a set of adjusted measurements that may better represent the unit operation. These will ultimately be used to identify faults, develop a model, or estimate parameters. This automatic reconciliation is not a panacea. Incomplete data sets, unknown uncertainties and incorrec t constraints all compromise the accuracy of the adjustments. Consequently, preliminary adjustments by hand are still recommended. Even when automatic adjustments appear to be correct, the resiilts must be viewed with some skepticism. 

Consequently, analysts must take a skeptical view of rectification results. The detection and isolation methods are computationally intensive and better suited for automatic procedures. SiiTuuation stud-... 

Early in the twentieth century physicists established that molecules are composed of positively charged nuclei and negatively charged electrons. Given their tiny size and nonclassical behavior, exemplified by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, it is remarkable (at least to me) that Eq. (1) can be considered exact as a description of the electrostatic forces acting between the atomic nuclei and electrons making up molecules and molecular systems. Eor those readers who are skeptical, and perhaps you should be skeptical of such a claim, I recommend the very readable introduction to Jackson s electrodynamics book [1]. 

The structure originally proposed for cordycepic acid, [a]u = +40.3°, has been shown to be incorrect. Suggest a reason to be skeptical about the original structure, which is given below. 

Earlier analyses making use of AH vs. AS plots generated many p values in the experimentally accessible range, and at least some of these are probably artifacts resulting from the error correlation in this type of plot. Exner s treatment yields p values that may be positive or negative and that are often experimentally inaccessible. Some authors have associated isokinetic relationships and p values with specific chemical phenomena, particularly solvation effects and solvent structure, but skepticism seems justified in view of the treatments of Exner and Krug et al. At the present time an isokinetic relationship should not be claimed solely on the basis of a plot of AH vs. A5, but should be examined by the Exner or Krug methods. 

When Mitchell first described his chemiosmotic hypothesis in 1961, little evidence existed to support it, and it was met with considerable skepticism by the scientific community. Eventually, however, considerable evidence accumulated to support this model. It is now clear that the electron transport chain generates a proton gradient, and careful measurements have shown that ATP is synthesized when a pH gradient is applied to mitochondria that cannot carry out electron transport. Even more relevant is a simple but crucial experiment reported in 1974 by Efraim Racker and Walther Stoeckenius, which provided specific confirmation of the Mitchell hypothesis. In this experiment, the bovine mitochondrial ATP synthasereconstituted in simple lipid vesicles with bac-teriorhodopsin, a light-driven proton pump from Halobaeterium halobium. As shown in Eigure 21.28, upon illumination, bacteriorhodopsin pumped protons... 

In 1821 Michael Faraday sent Ampere details of his memoir on rotary effects, provoking Ampere to consider why linear conductors tended to follow circular paths. Ampere built a device where a conductor rotated around a permanent magnet, and in 1822 used electric currents to make a bar magnet spin. Ampere spent the years from 1821 to 1825 investigating the relationship between the phenomena and devising a mathematical model, publishing his results in 1827. Ampere described the laws of action of electric currents and presented a mathematical formula for the force between two currents. However, not everyone accepted the electrodynamic molecule theory for the electrodynamic molecule. Faraday felt there was no evidence for Ampere s assumptions and even in France the electrodynamic molecule was viewed with skepticism. It was accepted, however, by Wilhelm Weber and became the basis of his theory of electromagnetism. 

In 1939 General Motor s Electro-Motive Division sent its famed demonstrator FT-103 diesel-electric units on a triumphant tour of America. One purpose was to show skeptical railroaders that this 5400 hp, four-unit diesel locomotive developed more low speed tractive effort than competitor steam engines, which meant smooth starts and excellent performance on long mountain grades. The effect was much like Trevithick s demonstrations 130 years earlier, and a new generation of railroad locomotive power was assured. 

A word of caution Any publication that claims major advantages for a particular breed of suspension or propulsion should be viewed with skepticism. 

Since the earliest days of the atomic age, physicists and engineers have predicted the coming of practicable nuclear fusion within ten years or a generation. Histoi y therefore offers many reasons to be skeptical about the promise of nuclear energy. At the same time, this unparalleled form of energy is not going to return to the Pandora s box pried open by the Manhattan Project more than a half century ago. 

Extrapolation is required if f(x) is known on the interval [a,b], but values of f(x) are needed for x values not in the interval. In addition to the uncertainties of interpolation, extrapolation is further complicated since the function is fixed only on one side. Gregory-Newton and Lagrange formulas may be used for extrapolation (depending on the spacing of the data points), but all results should be viewed with extreme skepticism. 

Despite the scientific progress and the demonstration of novel device concepts, there was considerable skepticism that semiconducting polymers would ever reach the levels of purity required for long-lifetime commercial devices. In the context of the last 50 years of semiconductor physics, conjugated polymers were often... 

Whether magnetic devices and related technologies really do work under any or some limited circumstances is still debatable. It is clear, however, that, in general, the chemical-based water treatment companies remain extremely skeptical, although the market has perhaps... 

Bagal (1974) studied the influence of substituents on the ground and first excited states of arenediazonium ions. With regard to compounds in which mesomeric structures such as 4.1b are important, these authors are skeptical about the validity of the PP method. Later, Bagal et al. (1982) used CNDO/2. The calculated 7r-electron densities at all the nitrogen and carbon atoms were similar to those in the earlier PP results. 

The design of subsequent experiments depends on one s early findings thus, care and skepticism must be exercised at the outset. From the first result in the laboratory, the investigator begins to formulate a model and to make plans to test it. Learning how to do so is a major goal for a person doing work in kinetics. 

The reason for the ultramicrochemical test was to establish whether the bismuth phosphate would carry the plutonium at the concentrations that would exist at the Hanford extraction plant. This test was necessary because it did not seem logical that tripositive bismuth should be so efficient in carrying tetrapositive plutonium. In subsequent months there was much skepticism on this point and the ultramicrochemists were forced to make repeated tests to prove this point. Thompson soon showed that Pu(Vl) was not carried by bismuth phosphate, thus establishing that an oxidation-reduction cycle would be feasible. All the various parts of the bismuth-phosphate oxidation-reduction procedure, bulk reduction via cross-over to a rare earth fluoride oxidation-reduction step and final isolation by precipitation of plutonium (IV) peroxide were tested at the Hanford concentrations of... 

After formulating a hypothesis, scientists design further experiments—carefully controlled tests—to verify it. Designing and conducting good experiments often requires ingenuity and sometimes good luck. If the results of repeated experiments—often in other laboratories and sometimes by skeptical coworkers—support... 

Autocatalysis can cause sustained oscillations in batch systems. This idea originally met with skepticism. Some chemists believed that sustained oscillations would violate the second law of thermodynamics, but this is not true. Oscillating batch systems certainly exist, although they must have some external energy source or else the oscillations will eventually subside. An important example of an oscillating system is the circadian rhythm in animals. A simple model of a chemical oscillator, called the Lotka-Volterra reaction, has the assumed mechanism ... 

The experimental error was estimated as 1-4% in k (208). In Figure 11, the more skeptical value of 5% is shown in Figure 12, the corresponding errors in E and log A are pictured at the point 29. In the coordinates logkj versus log ki, the correlation coefficient can be computed as r =. 9919 or. 9991, with or without the point 4, respectively. The corresponding standard deviations from the regression lines are. 068 and. 022 log unit, respectively. Their difference justifies the exclusion of point 4 the latter value compares favorably with the estimated error of 5% in k =. 021 log unit. 

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