The case of the forensic crime lab in Massachusetts is a demonstration of the type of activity - called science - which was easily accepted as valid despite the obvious lack of validation of the "results". Such was claimed by a perpetrator of dry-labbed chemical reports which affected the entire Massachusetts Justice System, and which produced a hazard for all Massachusetts citizens.
The forensic science lab employed Annie Dookhan to test crime samples for chemical composition. Dookhan faked more than 20,000 sample reports, which invalidated all 20,000 convictions.
Epic Drug Lab Scandal Results in More Than 20,000 Convictions Dropped
Chemical tests can be replicated, but were not. Possible reasons for this might include cost, timing required, poor management, and of course, the Post Modern Concept that science is merely the opinion of an expert in the relevant area.
Given that Dookhan was not caught until after the 20,000 mark indicates that lesser frauds might well be occurring in lesser volume arenas, or even in single cases to affect a single conviction.
The answer is replication, whether affordable or not. Without replication, the validity of a single event experiment cannot be known to be valid.
Worse, non-measurable, non-deductivo-empirical pursuits cannot generate any reputable knowledge and are no more reliable than pure opinion. Empiricism was invented in order to rule out opinion, ideology, and false observation, leaving only reliable, repeatable actual knowledge of physical characteristics and events.
AGW and Evolution might be dear to the hearts of the IFLS protesters, but they are not empirical, they are subject to many internal frauds, and they are merely opinion which is now taken as ideological gospel by the empirically illiterate. Which describes the IFLS crowd.
