RV Jones Lecture Targets Scientific Spin

We were delighted to welcome Dr Stuart Ritchie this week for his delivery of the first virtual RV Jones Science Lecture.

Dr Ritchie delivered a fascinating, eye-opening talk on hype, bias, fraud and negligence in science, and how to overcome them. It provided great insight for all our budding scientists - and indeed for everyone else too.

The topic is also the subject for Dr Ritchie's latest book: 'Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth'. He took us on an engaging canter through the publish or perish culture in science, misleading media reports, tips for reading scientific papers and much, much more.

The talk was watched by an audience of hundreds, including pupils, parents, staff and SSLP Southwark partner schools. Former Alleyn's Scientist-in-Residence Adam Rutherford also joined the audience, posting a few searching questions in the post-talk Q&A session. Other questions included "What is the most shocking fraud you have ever heard of?" from a Year 7 pupil, and very pertinently, "How do we know that Covid vaccine trial results haven't been cherry-picked?" - the answer to which provided great reassurance to any listeners who may have had concerns.

Alleyn's Head Mrs Lunnon described the talk as "Really a treat. It was illuminating, challenging and revealing. Great science!" while in summarising, Director of Science Mr Jones reminded us of the School's mission to encourage and feed curiosity, and of the healthy and important nature of scientific scepticism.