The Use and Misuse of Scientific Jargon

Many fields have their own jargon, which Wikipedia describes as “specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity” that often isn’t well understood by people outside of that particular field.

While jargon can help people within a field communicate precisely, that doesn’t necessarily translate well outside of the field. It can be a problem when people attempt to communicate information to someone outside of their field, such as a doctor or lawyer explaining things in a way that their patient or client is unlikely to understand.

Another potential problem area is when people adopt specialized jargon for general use, but do so in a way that doesn’t actually capture the meaning of the terms being borrowed. I tend to notice this with scientific and health terminology, because I know the technical meaning of a fair bit of that jargon, so incorrect usage tends to jump out at me.

Technical language is usually very specific in what it describes, but when people adopt it for popular use, the meaning becomes far vaguer. This is particularly problematic when this kind of language is used, without an awareness of underlying principles, to prop up non-scientific concepts.

Energy

Energy as a physical property comes in different types (e.g. potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical. It’s clearly defined and can be measured, and its relationship to other physical properties can be described based on patterns that have been observed through experimentation. The only way of knowing if a physical property exists is to measure it, either directly or indirectly.

In terms of spirituality, the term “energy” is not used in the same way; it refers to things that are felt but not objectively measured. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it can be a problem if people don’t recognize the difference.

Trying to make the spiritual into something physical/literal can start to veer into nonsense territory. The New Age movement seems like it’s been a major force in the attempt to make things literal that have no business being literal. Take chakras, for example. They were developed long ago as a spiritual concept, but the New Agey version is a lot more literal, and some people throw in vibrational frequencies for each chakra. Spiritual chakras? Sure, if that works for how you understand the spiritual self. Literal, physically vibrating chakras? No—the concept just doesn’t translate that way.

Vibrations

The law of attraction could be a useful metaphor, but The Secret folks insist that it’s not a metaphor, it’s quantum physics, and thoughts are vibrating at different frequencies and the universe is acting based on them. In a literal sense, that’s complete and utter nonsense. These people don’t seem to have the slightest clue about a) quantum physics, b) neurophysiology, c) the properties of matter, and d) really, anything about science at all.

However, because the metaphor can be very appealing, you can find loads of websites with people talking about quantum physics even though there’s no indication they’ve ever studied physics. Knowing some very superficial bits like terminology doesn’t confer actual knowledge of the subject matter, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from believing it does (this is the Dunning-Kruger effect).

Chemical vs. natural

Perhaps the periodic table of the elements shown below reminds you of high school science class. Every element on this table is a chemical, and they can combine to make chemical compounds (like 2 hydrogens and an oxygen make water). Everything is made of chemicals; it’s not a bad word.

“Natural” is a major buzzword that’s used as if it has some profound meaning, but it doesn’t actually have a scientific equivalent. There isn’t some inherent property that defines something as natural or unnatural, or makes things that are considered “natural” good and “chemical” bad.

People often use the word toxin to describe almost anything they think is unpleasant or harmful. Yet scientifically, the definition is much, much narrower, referring to substances made by living organisms, such as botulinum toxin.

Health and Physiology

A common error that I’ve noticed is the assumption that the body works in ways that intuitively make sense. It doesn’t, though, and that can lead to some erroneous conclusions.

Consider the term “chemical imbalance.” It was a simplification based on the “serotonin hypothesis,” which some scientists had suggested decades ago to account for the fact that drugs that helped with depression affected serotonin transmission. It was a simplification to begin with, and scientists have a better understanding now, yet it persists. In part, that’s probably because it’s an easy way to express that there is a biological element of mental illness, but it’s often interpreted literally, by people both for and against medications, leading to some flawed arguments on both sides.

Diets, detoxes, and conditions like adrenal fatigue proposed by alternative health folks all tend to borrow words from science without understanding the underlying process. That surface-level knowledge is enough for proponents of these ideas to convince themselves that their knowledge is deeper than it is, and for them to sound believable to others who also don’t have background knowledge of the underlying process.

Knowing the jargon isn’t enough

This may just be jumping around in my head because a) I’m a science geek, and b) language usage interests me. However, I think the bigger picture is that the internet gives lots of access to fairly surface-level information, like jargon from various fields, but that isn’t necessarily paired with follow-up to gain a deeper understanding. Before the internet, there was TV. And really, who didn’t feel at least somewhat qualified to work in an emergency department after enough episodes swooning over (insert favourite character here) on ER? And of course CSI has made everyone a forensic investigator.

What stands out for me is that as long as people are aware of the limitations of their knowledge, it’s all good. If someone thinks they can perform a tracheotomy with a rusty spoon and paper straw on someone who’s passed out from choking, that’s not so good.

Have you come across people using jargon they don’t seem to understand?