The lack of public trust in science is a real problem, and mostly unjustified or misdirected. That said, nothing reinforces the evil scientist image like irradiating puppies.
I don’t know, given p-hacking and reproducibility problems, science “journalism” that tends to report the results of single experiments as confirmed findings, and pay-gating of research behind for-profit journals, the scientific establishment does have some credibility challenges atm.
It is pretty dark. There's even a cute beagle picture in a graph. Apparently beagles are the preferred model animal for radiation studies going back to the 1950's.
Then you do a controlled blind study on extending the lifespans of humans eating bacon from irradiated pigs. Wastage stopped, science advanced, lifespans extended (maybe).
