Following my retirement, we have closed our company for new business.

Please do not hesitate to contact me directly, our email portal remains open and I would be delighted to hear from you and provide ongoing support or advice.

Richard Thomson

support@rta-instruments.com

Companies represented up to the end of December 2023. Please now contact them directly.

k-Space Associates, Inc.
Phone: +1 (734) 426-7977
requestinfo@k-space.com
https://www.k-space.com

STAIB INSTRUMENTS GmbH
Phone: +49 8761 76 24 0
sales@staibinstruments.com
https://www.staibinstruments.com/

Thursday 2 March 2017

Agnotology is the study of ...?

Retraction Watch probably has enough to do dealing with the sedater pace of scientific publications without delving into the high speed, social media festooned, world of fake news. Recent electoral events have not only increased the interest in this topic but also introduced agnotology to a wider audience. Agnotology is the study of ignorance or lack of knowledge. A wider definition being the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly through the dissemination of inaccurate or misleading information. A topic whose time has come?

As Jonathan Swift so aptly wrote back in 1710: “Besides, as the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believed only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…”

Slightly more than 140 characters.

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