- Thread starter
- #1
Rock Strongo
My mind spits with an enormous kickback.
Nobel Prize Winner For Chemistry Debunks Science In Wells Report CBS Boston
Nobel Prize Winner For Chemistry Debunks Science In Wells Report
May 14, 2015 12:33 PM
Share on emailView Comments
Umpire Carl Paganelli holds a ball during the 2015 AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium on January 18, 2015 in Foxboro. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
BOSTON (CBS) – As predicted, the New England Patriots will not go silently into the night after their integrity was called into question for the deflation of footballs in the AFC Championship Game played on January 18, 2015 in Foxboro.
Ted Wells, the investigator hired by the NFL, determined that two Patriots employees, locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski, were “more than likely” involved in a scheme to deflate footballs, and that quarterback Tom Brady was “generally” aware of their activity.
For this, New England was fined $1 million and docked two draft picks by the league, and Brady was issued a four-game suspension.
On Thursday morning the Patriots fired back by launching a website called WellsReportContext.com, which serves as a rebuttal that denied many of Wells’ conclusions.
US Professor Roderick MacKinnon, one of two Nobel Prize winners in chemistry receives the 2003 Nobel Prize from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf (Photo by SVEN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
In one section of the website, we learn from 2003 Nobel Prize winner Roderick MacKinnon that the science in the Wells Report is insufficient. We already knew about Exponent’s past controversial findings, but the Rockefeller University professor really lays it out for you why, based on his expertise, the data is inconclusive.
From WellsReportContext.com:
Roderick MacKinnon is a professer at The Rockefeller University. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. His other awards include the 2003 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the 2001 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, the 2000 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science and the 1999 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
Professor MacKinnon has no business or personal relationship with the Patriots. When news of the investigation became public, he offered his scientific expertise to the team.
The Wells report concluded “within the range of likely game conditions and circumstances studied, they could identify no set of credible environmental or physical factors that completely accounts for the Patriots halftime measurements or for the additional loss in air pressure exhibited by the Patriots game balls, as compared to the loss in air pressure exhibited by the Colts game balls”. I do not agree with this conclusion. Let me explain why.
The major uncertainty in the Wells Report scientific analysis lies in the pregame measurement of ball pressures: there were two gauges that differ by approximately 0.4 psi, it is not certain which was used in the pregame measurement, and the data were not recorded. If the pregame measurement of Patriots balls was made with the gauge that gives the higher number (high gauge) – as was the Official’s best recollection – then when you compare the Patriots ball pressures at halftime using the same gauge, you observe that the average Patriots ball pressure drop (1.0 psi) falls precisely in the range predicted by the Ideal Gas Law (1.0 to 1.2 psi) for the temperature differences the balls were thought to experience on game day. In more detail, 8 out of 11 Patriots balls fall within that predicted range, and the three with a larger drop (by 0.1, 0.3 and 0.4 psi) can be explained by measurement error (see below). Further, if the pregame measurements for Colts balls were made with the other (low) gauge then the Colts balls dropped 0.7 psi (only 4 Colts balls were measured at halftime). The smaller drop by 0.3 psi of the Colts balls can have a scientific explanation – they were measured at halftime after the 11 Patriots balls and thus had more time to warm up and increase pressure. Is it possible that the same Official could use one gauge for the Patriots and the other for the Colts measurements? Not only is this possible but it is exactly what happened at halftime. The Wells Report describes a detailed procedure in which each Official used one gauge to measure pressures of 11 Patriots balls first then 4 Colts balls. Only on subsequent data analysis did it become evident that the gauges were inadvertently switched in between measuring the team balls. It is very easy to understand how this could happen because the gauges look almost identical. This could also have occurred for the pregame measurements because the Official who made those measurements owned both gauges and brought them to the stadium. Imagine the Official has a bunch of balls from each of two teams that he has to measure and two gauges that are almost identical, so much so that they were interchanged during the rigid protocol of recording described for halftime.
Nobel Prize Winner For Chemistry Debunks Science In Wells Report
May 14, 2015 12:33 PM
Share on emailView Comments
Umpire Carl Paganelli holds a ball during the 2015 AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium on January 18, 2015 in Foxboro. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
BOSTON (CBS) – As predicted, the New England Patriots will not go silently into the night after their integrity was called into question for the deflation of footballs in the AFC Championship Game played on January 18, 2015 in Foxboro.
Ted Wells, the investigator hired by the NFL, determined that two Patriots employees, locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski, were “more than likely” involved in a scheme to deflate footballs, and that quarterback Tom Brady was “generally” aware of their activity.
For this, New England was fined $1 million and docked two draft picks by the league, and Brady was issued a four-game suspension.
On Thursday morning the Patriots fired back by launching a website called WellsReportContext.com, which serves as a rebuttal that denied many of Wells’ conclusions.
US Professor Roderick MacKinnon, one of two Nobel Prize winners in chemistry receives the 2003 Nobel Prize from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf (Photo by SVEN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
In one section of the website, we learn from 2003 Nobel Prize winner Roderick MacKinnon that the science in the Wells Report is insufficient. We already knew about Exponent’s past controversial findings, but the Rockefeller University professor really lays it out for you why, based on his expertise, the data is inconclusive.
From WellsReportContext.com:
Roderick MacKinnon is a professer at The Rockefeller University. In 2003 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry. His other awards include the 2003 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the 2001 Gairdner Foundation International Award, the 2001 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, the 2000 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science and the 1999 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award.
Professor MacKinnon has no business or personal relationship with the Patriots. When news of the investigation became public, he offered his scientific expertise to the team.
The Wells report concluded “within the range of likely game conditions and circumstances studied, they could identify no set of credible environmental or physical factors that completely accounts for the Patriots halftime measurements or for the additional loss in air pressure exhibited by the Patriots game balls, as compared to the loss in air pressure exhibited by the Colts game balls”. I do not agree with this conclusion. Let me explain why.
The major uncertainty in the Wells Report scientific analysis lies in the pregame measurement of ball pressures: there were two gauges that differ by approximately 0.4 psi, it is not certain which was used in the pregame measurement, and the data were not recorded. If the pregame measurement of Patriots balls was made with the gauge that gives the higher number (high gauge) – as was the Official’s best recollection – then when you compare the Patriots ball pressures at halftime using the same gauge, you observe that the average Patriots ball pressure drop (1.0 psi) falls precisely in the range predicted by the Ideal Gas Law (1.0 to 1.2 psi) for the temperature differences the balls were thought to experience on game day. In more detail, 8 out of 11 Patriots balls fall within that predicted range, and the three with a larger drop (by 0.1, 0.3 and 0.4 psi) can be explained by measurement error (see below). Further, if the pregame measurements for Colts balls were made with the other (low) gauge then the Colts balls dropped 0.7 psi (only 4 Colts balls were measured at halftime). The smaller drop by 0.3 psi of the Colts balls can have a scientific explanation – they were measured at halftime after the 11 Patriots balls and thus had more time to warm up and increase pressure. Is it possible that the same Official could use one gauge for the Patriots and the other for the Colts measurements? Not only is this possible but it is exactly what happened at halftime. The Wells Report describes a detailed procedure in which each Official used one gauge to measure pressures of 11 Patriots balls first then 4 Colts balls. Only on subsequent data analysis did it become evident that the gauges were inadvertently switched in between measuring the team balls. It is very easy to understand how this could happen because the gauges look almost identical. This could also have occurred for the pregame measurements because the Official who made those measurements owned both gauges and brought them to the stadium. Imagine the Official has a bunch of balls from each of two teams that he has to measure and two gauges that are almost identical, so much so that they were interchanged during the rigid protocol of recording described for halftime.