Small mistakes can make indicators very misleading
Yesterday my bicycle computer told me I was riding through the park at nearly 88 kmh (54mph). If only. Small mistakes can make indicators very misleading. A chemical plant once discovered a simple error in a laboratory procedure that gave them slightly high readings of water concentration in samples of their final product taken from [...]
Armstrong Affair shows USADA uninfluenced by measurement
The US Anti-Doping Agency says it has “overwhelming proof” seven-time Tour-de-France winner Lance Armstrong was cheating by doping himself with performance-enhancing substances. What is the evidence? Armstrong was tested for drugs perhaps hundreds of times during his cycling career. Every single test pronounced him clean. That is strong evidence against doping. According to the USADA, [...]
Hoaxing, forging, trimming, faking, cooking and falsifying measurements
There have been several recent high-profile cases of scientists hoaxing, forging, trimming, cooking or falsifying their data. These cases occurred in spite of the fact that scientific publications must be peer-reviewed before publication, and that scientific findings must be replicated before they are confirmed. Would the safeguards in place in most business catch similar acts? [...]
Investing in measurement usually pays off
A headline in British journal “The Engineer” caught my eye a few weeks ago. It said that the British government has announced a £240 million (US $393 million) investment in measurement, with the aim of improving measurement techniques and technology to stimulate innovation in productions, processes and services. The heart of the scientific process is [...]
Gas pumps inaccurate, study shows. So are all measurements, experience shows.
As Canadians and Americans fill up their tanks for the July 1st and 4th long weekend they can contemplate this piece by CBC news that tells us that inaccurate gas pumps are short-changing Canadians. It is impossible to measure anything in a way that is consistently accurate. There are only ways to measure that are [...]
Throwing out water quality data
With real time measurements, exception reports are often the most useful indicator. This seems to have been forgotten by one government water quality inspector.
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