Detecting quantum mysticism in books published in Brazil with Data Science

• Main Authors: Mairus Disconzi de Moura, Renato P. dos Santos
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) 2017-12-01
• Series: Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física
• Subjects: ensino de física; física quântica; misticismo quântico; aprendizado de máquina; livros
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/fisica/article/view/48220

The bookstores have been full of titles including the word “quantum”, but more regarding to the “quantum mysticism”, which supports the existence of links between quantum mechanics and Eastern mysticism, leading to serious misunderstandings. This work aims to identify terms that can help readers, especially high-school teachers, to recognize to which of those categories a book pertains even before reading it through, contributing to breaking the vicious circle of students learning pseudoscience and passing it on as truth. The online catalogues from the four biggest bookstores in Brazil were used in this research. Books containing the words “quântica” or “quântico” – both corresponding to “quantum” – in their titles or synopses were searched. The resulting database was scrutinized with the help of Data Science techniques and text mining resources from the R programming language, and 22 terms that discriminate with an accuracy of 94% between the categories “quantum mysticism” and science or science popularization were identified.