“THE METHOD OF SCIENCE IS THE METHOD OF BOLD CONJECTURES AND
INGENIOUS AND SEVERE ATTEMPTS TO REFUTE THEM,’ SAID KARL
POPPER, THE DEAN OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. POPPER ALSO
NOTED THAT AN INFINITE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE WRONG CONJECTURES
EXIST FOR EVERY ONE THAT HAPPENS TO BE RIGHT. THIS IS WHY THE
PRACTICE OF SCIENCE REQUIRES AN EXQUISITE BALANCE BETWEEN A
FIERCE AMBITION TO DISCOVER THE TRUTH AND A RUTHLESS SCEPTICISM
TOWARD YOUR OWN WORK. THIS, TOO, IS THE IDEAL ALBEIT NOT THE
REALITY, OF RESEARCH IN MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH” (1, p.24-25)
In the previous column (2) I showed how Ancel Keys first stole the ideas of the Diet-
Heart and Lipid Hypotheses from Dr John Gofman MD. To conceal his own grave
academic limitations – in particular, his absence of training in medicine, cardiology
and lipidology (the study of blood fats) – he found the perfect diversion in the
discipline of nutritional epidemiology for which he required no special skills or
training. Masquerading behind this covert scientific pretence, he promoted weak
associational data from that freshly discovered academic discipline as if it were
definitive proof for his, actually Gofman’s, hypotheses. Yet he was fully aware that
associational data cannot prove causation except under a few exceptional
circumstances; circumstances that Keys’ especially weak associational data could
never establish.
Only ever in passing did Keys acknowledged this fatal weakness in his false claims.
It was as if he believed that in every other case, associational data do not prove
causation. But his claim was different. Since they were his ideas (even if purloined),
then they had to be correct. Even when his proof failed all accepted scientific
canons. His truth, he knew, was so absolute, so perfect, it required no human proof.
It was biblical. With time he would collect a bevy of disciples who would faithfully
spread his false prophecy to all corners of the Earth.