My assignment is to read the article below and distinguish between concepts that

Question

My assignment is to read the article below and distinguish between concepts that are scientific and pseudoscientific. I have a 96 average in this class and suddenly I am stumped. The whole article looks scientific to me. Can anyone please point me in the right direction? Thank you so much!! ~ Anna

Scenario: While researching genetics, you are introduced to the controversy over genetically modified foods.

you find this article http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/ge/ .

Using this article, identify and discuss the differnence between the scientific ideas and pseudoscientific ideas presented?

Explanation / Answer

I found the following statements as instances of pseudo-scientific ideas:-
1) "Genetic engineering experiments on animals do, however, pose potential risks to food safety and the environment." - while this statement may seem logical and scientific, but its not. It is logically correct as it says 'potential risks', but its not scientific because under controlled experimental setting its highly unlikely that the mutation will enter into the ecosystem. The instance of the mutated pigs is not of scientific error but lack of implementation of law.

2) "Genetic engineering may change the nutritional value of food." - This is again the case where it can never be established that GE 'may' not change the nutritrional value, because of the technically correct nature of the statement. But scientific exploration will show that in genetic engineering, primarily genes affecting resistance th pecticies, etc. are mutated, which are isolated from the genes carrying codes of portein structure that have nutritional value.

3) "Gene pollution can not be cleaned up" - because it is an untestable claim as there is no methodological framework of the 'cleaning' established.

4) "So eating organic is a surefire way to avoid GE foods." - This is outright false statement that is made to sound like a scientific fact because it is contradictory to the earlier statement "genetic pollution cannot be isolated and separated from the environment in which it is spreading".

I believe that the above examples from the article give you a fairly good idea of how to recognize a pseudo-scientific idea.

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