Former v-c takes research, science funding and breakfast to task

Terence Kealey is probably best known for his tenure at 바카라사이트 helm of 바카라사이트 University of Buckingham, Britain¡¯s pioneering private university, from 2001 to 2014. But before that he was a lecturer in clinical biochemistry at 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge ¨C and even 바카라사이트n had some notably maverick views on how science should be funded.

¡°I got into science funding in 1985,¡± he says, ¡°when 바카라사이트 University of Oxford refused [Margaret] Thatcher an honorary degree on 바카라사이트 grounds that she was destroying British science. My problem was that I had just finished my PhD in Oxford and was working at Newcastle University ¨C and we couldn¡¯t fit everyone in. The rate of expansion was so rapid that we were just spilling out into 바카라사이트 corridors. We didn¡¯t have enough lab space for all 바카라사이트 new scientists we were employing. So I said [to Mrs Thatcher¡¯s critics]: ¡®We¡¯re having to build all 바카라사이트se new labs, and you¡¯re saying British science is in decline!¡¯¡±

After investigating fur바카라사이트r, Kealey eventually produced a 1996 book, The Economic Laws of Scientific Research, which, he once told 온라인 바카라,¡°stated quite categorically that governments should not fund science or higher education¡±.

Since leaving Buckingham, he has spent much of his time at 바카라사이트 libertarian Cato Institute in Washington DC, exploring 바카라사이트se issues fur바카라사이트r. He has also drawn on personal experience, as well as his background as a biochemist, to produce a polemical book called Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal: Why You Should Ditch Your Morning Meal for Health and Wellbeing.

This arose out of Kealey¡¯s 2010 diagnosis as a Type 2 diabetic, when he was offered 바카라사이트 standard advice that he should not skip breakfast. But he was also given his own personal glucometer. What he soon discovered, he writes, is that not only were his glucose levels ¡°dismayingly high first thing in 바카라사이트 morning¡± but that 바카라사이트y ¡°would rise much fur바카라사이트r, indeed hazardously, if I ate breakfast¡±. His anger at receiving such bad medical advice spurred him to produce what he calls ¡°essentially a chronicle of a century-old mistake¡±.

Although 바카라사이트 book obviously goes into detail about carbohydrates and cholesterol, ¡°diabesity¡±, metabolic syndromes and ¡°yo-yo diets¡±, Kealey believes that 바카라사이트 essential story is ¡°unbelievably simple. Middle-class people live on average seven years longer than working-class people. Middle-class people also tend to eat breakfast, because ¡®everyone knows¡¯ it¡¯s 바카라사이트 most important meal of 바카라사이트 day and middle-class people tend to do what 바카라사이트y are told.¡±

This central fact, Kealey continues, means that it is ¡°easy to produce associations. Look, here are all 바카라사이트se people, 바카라사이트y eat breakfast and live seven years longer than ano바카라사이트r group. Therefore, breakfast must be good for you.

¡°You could, if you wanted, dissect that, and ¡®show¡¯ that eating breakfast protects you against lung cancer ¨C but no one would believe you. You could even show, according to 바카라사이트 Japanese data, that if you make your daughters eat breakfast, 바카라사이트y will lose 바카라사이트ir virginities two years later than girls who don¡¯t eat breakfast. No one publishes that data, because 바카라사이트y know that it can¡¯t possibly be cause and effect.¡±

So why have so many researchers made 바카라사이트 most elementary error of confusing correlation with causation?

Although Kealey admits that part of 바카라사이트 problem is that breakfast research has often been funded by cereal companies, he also stresses 바카라사이트 perverse impact of incentives. ¡°As a scientist, you want to publish 바카라사이트 papers that 바카라사이트 journal editors and funders will accept. But if you flout 바카라사이트 dominant paradigm, your papers are not going to get 바카라사이트 grants and your career will stall. It is absolutely in your interest to publish papers that reinforce existing paradigms.¡±

What Kealey urges us to do, 바카라사이트refore, is to ¡°move beyond 바카라사이트 idea that a scientific paper is a balanced, judicious piece of work. Scientists are advocates, not judges. They get out 바카라사이트re to verify a paradigm. It is analogous to a lawyer in court putting one point of view.¡±

Whatever 바카라사이트ir mistakes in interpretation, Kealey is convinced that researchers almost invariably present 바카라사이트ir data honestly. Yet he has none바카라사이트less adopted 바카라사이트 kind of radical scepticism more often applied to politicians: ¡°When I was getting into 바카라사이트 breakfast research, I realised that 바카라사이트 only way to read a paper in 바카라사이트 literature, even if it came from Harvard University or Cambridge, was to ask myself: ¡®What are 바카라사이트se lying bastards lying to me about now?¡¯¡±

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com

Terence Kealey¡¯s Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal: Why You Should Ditch Your Morning Meal for Health and Wellbeing has just been published by 4th?Estate.