The Problem of Fake News and Science Reporting

During and even after the recent US election campaign, numerous reports of fake news, made-up news, and other kinds of news were deemed either outright fabrication or inaccurate or incomplete reporting of something to skewer it into one point of view or another. While the outright fabricated news can easily be spotted eventually, other kinds of news reporting were not as easily spotted, and worse still, continue to be cited by numerous news organizations, websites, and even political figures.

Most of this news involves inaccurate or misleading reporting of either data or facts. One such example is the recent report on the unemployment rate in the US that was used in a political campaign. One can see why it isn’t wrong, technically, to indicate that the US unemployment rate can be anywhere from 4.6% all the way to, get this, 40.3%! Anyone can take one or the other extreme number and claim to be “correct”. But what about the public listening to such claims? Are they aware of the two extreme numbers, and are they aware of why they are so different? Can they understand the context where those two numbers were derived?

So that was the setup for what I’m about to tell you here. This is a continuation, or maybe a reinforcement of the point that I had tried to make in my earlier article on The Most Important Thing You Can Learn From PhysicsForums. You see, in that article, one of the important points that I tried to emphasize is the constant “nagging” of senior members of this forum for members to pay attention to their sources of information clearly, and to CITE those sources clearly:

We try to enforce many things here on PF, and some of them to the dislike of many members. I’ve mentioned our insistence that members who wish to understand about stuff they read, heard, etc. must cite their sources clearly. This is a normal practice in science and engineering. We includes tons of citations in our papers, our funding proposals, our reports, etc. It is part of our standard operating procedure, making sure whoever reads it knows where the source of such-and-such information comes from. This is not a common practice for the general public. Newspapers very seldom provide such exact citations. Politicians are even worse – they seem to claim A causes B without even providing any justification, something we can’t do in science. Maybe, just maybe, if you learn how we arrive at our ideas in science, then you might set your acceptance level of what is valid to be higher, where you demand to know what is the evidence to support that A causes B? What is the nature of the source that support this? There is no reason to not demand valid supporting evidence even in dealing with political and social issues. Otherwise, it becomes just a matter of opinion or tastes without any rational justification. This is what science set as a standard, and this is why HOW we arrive at the conclusion we have is something important that you can learn from this forum.

I hope that you can already see the connection between where I’m going and the issue of “fake news” that I reported at the beginning of this article. If you care that much about knowing the unemployment rate in the US (for whatever reason), then you simply should not rely on the news reports, and certainly not from the mouths of politicians, for those numbers. What this means is that you have to go dig out the source, read how these numbers were arrived at, and maybe even try to understand how they were obtained, and then understand why there were such variations and ranges in the numbers reported. You have to go back to the source, rather than rely on news media reporting or 2nd, even 3rd-hand news! The source of your information requires to be scrutinized!

So how does this relate to physics or science in general? The impetus for my writing this article happened very recently, but this type of “fake news” has happened numerous times before. This is not outright fabricated news, but rather misleading news. But what is even worse is that this misleading information, once it has appeared online, gets propagated by other news media, thus, giving an unsuspecting general public the wrong impression of what was going on.

The story in question is the recent publication on the verification of the magnetic field topology for a fusion reactor or Stellarator known as Wendelstein 7-X. This is a significant milestone in the process of commissioning the stellarator because the geometry of the magnetic field inside this reactor is extremely complex and with tight tolerances. You can read the actual publication of this paper since it is open to the public.

So then, what’s the problem? Now, remember what they are reporting here, i.e. the accuracy of the magnetic field topology that they had designed. This is important if they want to continue on and possibly generate a fusion process when this beast is finally running.

But along comes the various sites reporting this work and this is where things become misleading very quickly.

From the Popular Mechanics website:
Germany’s Wildly Complex Fusion Reactor Is Actually Working

However, the stellerator design is still relatively untested, so a group of researchers spent the past year studying the W7-X reactor to ensure that it was working the way it was supposed to. They found an incredibly small error rate, less than 1 in 100,000, which the researchers characterized as “unprecedented accuracy.”

Here’s something from Space.com:

“Star-In-A-Jar” Fusion Reactor Works and Promises Infinite Energy
In a study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications, researchers confirmed that Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion energy device is on track and working as planned. The space-age system, known as a stellerator, generated its first batch of hydrogen plasma when it was first fired up earlier this year. The new tests basically give scientists the green light to proceed to the next stage of the process.

The unsuspecting public (remember them?) might read either of these articles and (i) pay huge attention to the title and (ii) get the message that I highlighted above from each of these articles. The result? People will think that the stellarator is now working and they’re moving on to the next phase. This is completely wrong! They have not reported such a thing, even though this is an important step towards making the device work. What these two news articles focused on was the “sexy” side to the story, i.e. a fusion reactor and the promise of “infinite energy”. Reporting that the group confirmed the shape and strength of the magnetic field is boring (other than the neat picture that accompanied the paper). So they stretched the truth a bit and went for the non-existent jugular. This is “fake news”.

Now I will be fair to both of them. Unlike regular news articles, these two at least provided links to the source. So anyone with any keen interest can pursue this further and read the actual paper. But how many of the members of the general public will (i) do that and (ii) be able to understand the technical details of the paper? They rely on news summaries such as these to give them the gist, and presumably, ACCURATE information. Otherwise, if they have to dig the source each time, what’s the point of such a news summary in the first place?

It is disheartening to see “established” websites reporting and/or propagating misleading news such as this. We at PF have often seen members coming in and citing many such sources. These members can become frustrated, usually with us, when we tell them that they either didn’t understand what the real thing was or that the news they read was incorrect. Worse yet, we get crackpots who rely on this inaccurate news to propagate their ignorance.

The moral of this story is caveat emptor!

Unless you are ready to dig a bit deeper into what you read and get your hands on the source, you have to be aware that you are relying on someone’s interpretation, motive, agenda, etc. in whatever you are reading. That is why we insist that you pay attention to the quality of your source of information and that you cite the source you are using to back your claims. Otherwise, there is no way for us to know if you misinterpreted/misunderstood what you read, or if you read another “fake news”.

Top 5 Tips for Defending Against Fake Science Reporting

1. Verify the Source
   • Check if the information comes from reputable news outlets, scientific journals, or official institutions.
   • Be cautious with articles from unknown websites or those with sensational headlines.
2. Examine the Evidence
   • Assess whether the article cites peer-reviewed studies or credible data.
   • Be skeptical of claims that lack supporting evidence or reference outdated research.
3. Cross-Reference Information
   • Look for multiple sources reporting the same findings.
   • Verify if other credible scientists or experts support the claims.
4. Beware of Confirmation Bias
   • Be mindful of the tendency to accept information that confirms your existing beliefs.
   • Evaluate all information critically, even if it aligns with your views.
5. Understand the Scientific Process
   • Recognize that science evolves, and new evidence can change understandings.
   • Familiarize yourself with basic scientific principles and how research is conducted and validated.