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Why science needs the strange

Richard Wiseman · 17 Jun 2026

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Richard Wiseman did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Investigating paranormal and weird phenomena frequently drives scientific breakthroughs.

    Their wordsWhile mainstream scientists often dismiss such work as fringe, my talk highlighted how investigating weird stuff frequently drives scientific breakthroughs.

  2. Our reading

    Researchers should be encouraged to study anomalous and strange phenomena to foster innovation.

    Their wordsMost scientists study the norm. In my talk, I suggested that we foster innovation by encouraging researchers to take a scientific look at phenomena which appear anomalous, strange, and even downright weird.

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