It’s not just a fun academic problem. Getting the science wrong has very real consequences. For example, when a community doesn’t vaccinate children because they’re afraid of “toxins” and think that prayer (or diet, exercise, and “clean living”) is enough to prevent bacterial infection, outbreaks happen.

Step-by-step instructions for reading a primary research article:

How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientists by Jennifer Raff, Violent Metaphors