These days it can be difficult to tease out what's true and what's not, but that makes it all the more important for researchers to stick up for the truth and its pursuit through science, writes Brandeis University's Eve Marder at eLife.
She adds that in the current political climate where evidence is often disregarded, she feels "that I am shouting into the wind of a cacophony of lost souls. How does one effect change when truth has no currency?"
Marder argues, though, that more voices are needed to support the need to search for truth through science and evidence. She adds that students need to be taught how to tell the differences between what's true and what's not, otherwise, they could become unfamiliar with "recognizing truth as derived from evidence."
"The dissemination of new knowledge requires voices willing and able to speak the truth in ways that pierce the clouds of misinformation, misconception, and expediency," Marder writes, noting that "more than ever, we need the idealism and drive of our youth."