Peter Moore: Will social media blunt scientific study?

In 1628 William Harvey published a book called de Motu Cordis. Not a title which would immediately reach the Sunday Times best sellers’ list, but it was a trailblazer. 

Until the 17th century doctors were taught from ancient Greek and Latin texts. They simply believed and practiced what they had been taught. One of the teachings was that blood went out from the heart and back again like the tide, web and flow. Harvey carried out several experiments and calculations, He realised that this was not possible. Blood circulates around the body. The problem with his theory was that, without a microscope, he could not see how blood travelled from the arteries to the veins. He proposed that there were tiny blood vessels connecting the two but too small to see. We now know that he was right. These are the capillaries. His arguments were so strong that the medical profession had to accept that the ancient Romans got it wrong. The books were wrong. 

Harvey was also sceptical over the widespread belief in witches and gave expert evidence in a witch trial leading to a not guilty verdict. Whatever the church taught, where was the evidence? 

His approach was not only a breakthrough in medicine. It would not be a hyperbole to suggest that this was the beginning of a massive step in human evolution. Suddenly scientists realised that we cannot simply accept all we are taught. We need evidence. Harvey was not alone but the bellwether of a whole movement we now call the scientific revolution. 

Although he was physician to the King and a royalist this approach also led to people questioning the divine right of kings. How do we know that the king is only answerable to God? 

Harvey’s approach was followed by Issac Newton and every scientist since. This was the beginning of The Age of Enlightenment. The idea that we need evidence and that everything should be rational spread into politics and the law. Philosophers and scientists had meetings and produced pamphlets. 

Taking the long view it becomes clear that there has been massive progress from the time of the enlightenment and scientific revolution until now. Experiments led to the steam engine and the industrial revolution and eventually to the Internet and space travel. 

Our ancestors could only dream about our quality of life, life expectancy, childhood mortality, nutrition and the medicine we enjoy today. Would any of this happened without the enlightenment and scientific revolution or would we still accept anything we were told with no evidence?  

But is this revolution coming to an end? Social media is full of bizarre conspiracy theories such as the claim that vaccines do not work or denying climate change despite overwhelming evidence. Some people shun modern medicine and turn to therapies which have no supporting evidence.  

What is strange is that the scientific revolution was pushed by the Universities. A fundamental part of a university education is to question everything and demand evidence. The conspiracy theorists are questioning everything but then deny the evidence. 

Now that we have had a massive increase in the number of universities and almost half school leavers go on to university we would expect the next generation to be demanding evidence. Surely a university education should teach students not to go down conspiracy rabbit holes without questioning the evidence. 

To deny the scientific method and move away from the enlightenment philosophy is dangerous and can lead to “no platforming” individual students on unsubstantiated rumours. This has recently led to an Oxford student committing suicide.  It can also hamper genuine scientific progress. 

Since the days of William Harvey every scientist has encouraged others to question their conclusions. Other scientists can set up their own experiments to test a theory. 

Luckily in 1628 there was no social media. If there had been, would have been Harvey have been attacked by trolls who “know” that the whole idea of the circulation of the blood is a conspiracy by the elite.