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Published Sunday, June 12, 2005 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

MORE ABOUT THE BAD MATH IN THE SCIENTIST SURVEY: My mother told me she read that posting from last week a few times and still had trouble figuring it out. Perhaps she is not alone. So let me try to explain with an example.

Say the survey asked only 9 scientists to check any of 10 boxes owning up to misdeeds.
Only one scientist checks any boxes.
But he checks three boxes.
The survey results would say 11 percent owned up to misdeed A, 11 percent owned up to misdeed D and 11 percent owned up to misdeed F.

The researchers -- and the Globe's reporter and headline writer -- could not accurately add up those percentages and say that one-third of the scientists have fudged their reports, could they? No.