Stephanie Seneff

Stephanie Seneff in 2014

Stephanie Seneff is a Senior Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Biography

Seneff received her BS in Biophysics in 1968, her MS and EE degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1980, and her Computer Science PhD in 1985, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology[1] Her research at MIT focuses on using computational modeling and analysis of the human auditory system to improve human-computer interactions. She was elected as a Fellow of the The International Speech and Communication Association (ISCA) in 2012 as recognition for her contributions to the field of communications research.[1]

Research on biology and medical topics

In 2011, Seneff began publishing research on topics related to biology and medicine in the open access journal Entropy. According to Ari LeVaux, her work in this area has made her "a controversial figure in the scientific community".[2] In 2013, she coauthored a paper that associated the herbicide glyphosate with a wide variety of diseases and disorders such as cancer and autism.[3] Discover magazine writer Keith Kloor criticized the uncritical republication of the study's results by other media outlets.[4] Jerry Steiner, the executive vice president of sustainability at Monsanto, said in an interview regarding the study that "We are very confident in the long track record that glyphosate has. It has been very, very extensively studied."[5] Seneff's claims that glyphosate is a major cause of autism and that half of all children born in 2025 will be diagnosed with it at current rates have also been criticized. For example, the staff of the Pacific Standard have noted that, contrary to Seneff's claims, a number of scientific reviews have found that the rise in autism rates over the past 20 years is due to changes in diagnostic practices, and that a 2012 review found little evidence that glyphosate was associated with adverse development outcomes.[6]

Seneff and her MIT colleagues have also done research on the relationship between fat and cholesterol consumption and health in America. Based on this research, Seneff contends that, contrary to the conventional view on the matter, Americans are suffering from a cholesterol deficiency, not an excess.[7]

Response from scientists and skeptics

Clinical neurologist and skeptic Steven Novella criticized her Entropy publication for making "correlation is causation" assumptions using broad statistical extrapolations from limited data, saying "she has published only speculations and gives many presentations, but has not created any new data".[8] Medicinal chemist Derek Lowe disparaged the study for misusing and misrepresenting the results of its referenced studies, while also noting that the publishing journal is open access and has a known history of publishing studies without merit.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Stephanie Seneff". CSAIL website. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  2. ↑ LeVaux, Ari (27 February 2014). "Meet the Controversial MIT Scientist Who Claims She Discovered a Cause of Gluten Intolerance". Alternet. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Gillam, Carey (29 April 2013). "Roundup is tied to infertility and cancer; herbicide’s maker calls it safe". Washington Post. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  4. ↑ Kloor, Keith (April 26, 2013). "When Media Uncritically Cover Pseudoscience". Discover. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  5. ↑ Gillam, Carey (25 April 2013). "Heavy use of herbicide Roundup linked to health dangers: study". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  6. ↑ Staff (9 March 2015). "Research Gone Wild: The Future of Autism". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  7. ↑ Wartman, Kristin (27 August 2012). "Sunny-Side Up: In Defense of Eggs". The Atlantic. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Novella, Steven (December 31, 2014). "Glyphosate – The New Bogeyman". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
  9. ↑ Lowe, Derek (April 30, 2013). "Is Glyphosate Poisoning Everyone?". In The Pipeline. Corante. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.