This is a nice line I believe from Astral Codex Ten. The rest of the post (“The Phrase “No Evidence” Is A Red Flag for Bad Science Communication”) also strikes me as excellent. Although the full article is much more detailed than this excerpt, here’s a sample:
Science communicators are using the same term—”no evidence”—to mean:
- It is very plausible and likely to be true. However, we don’t know for sure.
- This is a false statement that we have strong evidence of. Stop repeating it.
It is Absolute corrosive to anybody trusting science journalism.
Thanks to Prof. Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) for the pointer.