Environmental Science The reality now is that anyone can publish his or her idea

Question

Environmental Science

The reality now is that anyone can publish his or her ideas, words and work. In some ways this has opened many new doors of possibility around the globe. In other ways, it has allowed people to publish on a subject whether they know anything about it or not. In science, we often require that research be scrutinized by other experts in the field before it can be published in a scientific journal. This process of peer review helps maintain high standards and quality in the field of research. But this is true only of peer-reviewed academic journals, because absolutely anyone can publish a book or post a paper on the Web without any expertise or peer-reviewed scrutiny of the work. In such cases, how do we know if what we’re reading is valid and reliable or just complete junk? It’s important to always critically assess the legitimacy of what you’re reading before assuming it’s valid. Some things you want to look out for are: Is there an author listed? Are the author’s credentials listed? Is the information written by an expert in the field? Is the site a blog, company, educational institution, or government site? The blog could be a warning sign that it is not a professional organization. Who owns the page? Do they stand to benefit from the information they share? Are there credible references? Take a look at the three sites listed below. Do a quick overview of the sites, thinking about the questions above. Post an explanation of which you find to be credible and which you find to be junk science. Briefly explain your thoughts and reason for your decision. Sites:

• Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

• Environmental activist

• The Potential for Biofuels from Algae Discussion

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Explanation / Answer

Using the points given in the question and after searching the given sites on the internet, I have concluded that The Pacific Northwest tree octopus is an Internet hoax created in 1998. It was a fake site which was spreading rumors about somekind of endangered species which even didnot exist. I came to know about this from different online resources like wikipedia and many other websites. I couldnot find any authors or credentials etc. The reviews about this site also give us the information that this was a hoax.

While on the other hand The Potential for Biofuels from Algae is a discussion topic. Because of the global warming and climate change and growing interest of scientists and experts towards alternatives to fossil fuels, this topic is in discussion and a lot of work is being done in this field. A lot of papers and theses can be found in reputed journals about this. They are reviewd by experts and have good ratings. The authors of these papers are highly qualified and are working in reputed institutes and universities. They also have credible references of many other experts in this field. In this way we can say that it is a credible source.

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