There are several ways in which scientific
language can be manipulated:
- By
trying to take advantage of the prestige of science where it
shouldn’t be applied, to obtain benefits of some kind. For example: when a
product or a plan is advertised as the result of a scientific study
that has not actually taken place. Over time, this effect usually
materializes in an incorrect use of the most advanced scientific terms of
the moment. At the end of the 19th century, many products carried
adjectives related to the telegraph
or radio broadcasting; in the
early 20th century, the element radium
and radioactivity were widely
used, before their harmful effects were discovered; in the middle 20th
century the word atomic was
in vogue; at the end of the 20th century, the terms computerized, electronic and biotechnological were preferred; and at
the beginning of the 21st century the most used terms are ecological, sustainable and environmentally
friendly. The scientific value of all these qualifiers is almost
null.
