Science

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BBC: Tantalising sign of possible life found on faraway world (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Nasa's James Webb Telescope may have discovered a molecule thought only to be produced by life.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's because that's how science works. Discoveries are not considered to be statistically significant until they reach what's called 5 sigma certainty which is approximately equivalent to saying that the chance that the discovery is wrong is 1 in 3.5 million.

A lot of scientists would consider it unethical to claim a discover until you had provided enough data to reach 5 sigma certainty. When papers are published, it takes a lot of peer review before the hypothesis of that paper event approaches 5 sigma certainty, but that doesn't mean that reporters aren't happy to pick up the story.

It's just bad and/or unethical science journalism that are picking up on unproven papers because of the sensational title.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Technically correct, the best kind of correct.