> >         A widespread reaction of the medical trade when Reston reported
in
> > the NYT during Nixon's famous visit to China that acupuncture
anaesthesia
> > works: "you say this phenomenon occurs, but you got no hypothesis for
*how*
> > it might work, so I say the phenomenon cannot occur".
>
> This is a straw man. If something happens and there is no scientific
> explanation then most scientists I know would not react as described.

In defence of Rob't, this latter argument, not the former, is a perfect
example of the classic Straw Man.

Robt said "A widespread reaction of the medical trade".
The reply said, "most scientists I know ".  There is a huge difference.

"Those in the medical trade" are not -- for the most part -- scientists, or
even people that the second writer knows.  "Those in the medical trade" are
largely technicians and trained specialists -- practical, rather than
theoretical people, who have some varying amounts of training and
experience in scientific methods, but often not a great deal.

Changing the subject a bit, while we are thinking about technicians,
tradesmen and scientists and laypersons:

Not only do many non-scientists assume that if science cannot explain
something that it cannot happen, but lay people often read an article in
the popular press that cites one study on some topic and assume that the
conclusion is true.  Things are seldom that easy.  Scientists are much
harder to convince -- one way or the other, and have to keep an open mind.

Scientists worthy of the name are often sceptics, but are also acutely
aware of what they do not know.  I recall sitting at a supper table with
six eminent bee researchers -- active and retired --  a few years back and
broaching the topic of cell size and varroa.  No one had anything much to
say about it.  They had heard the idea explained and read at least a few
studies that related to the topic, and had extensive experience with bees,
but none felt qualified to make a pronouncement on the matter.  The
strongest word used was 'interesting'.  I ventured that I could not see how
that it could work and there was some mild agreement that they could not
see how it could work either, but there was no scoffing or denial of the
concept.  My impression was that these people were wondering about the
question and had open minds.

allen
http://www.internode.net/honeybee/diary/