earth science

Viera Scheibner

Viera Scheibner is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Viera Scheibner rather than just read about it. In short: Viera Scheibner (Slovak: Viera Scheibnerová; born 27 March 1935, Bratislava) is a Slovak-Australian anti-vaccination activist and retired geologist. From 1958 until 1968 she was assistant professor in the department of geology at Comenius University, Bratislava.

Key takeaways

Viera Scheibner belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Viera Scheibner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Viera Scheibner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Viera Scheibner (Slovak: Viera Scheibnerová; born 27 March 1935, Bratislava) is a Slovak-Australian anti-vaccination activist and retired geologist. From 1958 until 1968 she was assistant professor in the department of geology at Comenius University, Bratislava. Since her retirement from the Department of Mineral Resources, New South Wales, Australia in 1987, Scheibner has been active in the anti-vaccination field, writing and giving lectures opposing vaccines and vaccinations. A number of critics have questioned her qualifications, research abilities, and honesty.

Education and career Viera Scheibner was born in Bratislava (formerly Czechoslovakia, now Slovak Republic). In 1953, Scheibner studied medicine for one year at Masaryk University in Brno (Faculty of Medicine). She did not complete her studies, and obtained no medical qualifications. She then enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences (Geology), and in 1954 transferred to the Comenius University in Bratislava where she graduated in 1958 under prof. D. Andrusov. During 1958–1961, she became a lecturer in the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of the Comenius University, Bratislava and was also a Senior Lecturer 1962–1967, at the Department of Geology and Palaeontology at Comenius University. Scheibner was awarded a doctorate in Natural Sciences (RNDr.) from the Comenius University in Bratislava in 1964. In 1967–1968 she served as Senior Associate Professor (Docent) at the Department of Geology and Palaeontology of Jan Amos Comenius University, Bratislava. In 1968, Scheibner together with her husband Ervin Scheibner emigrated to Australia and assumed a position as a micro-palaeontologist with the Geological Survey of New South Wales, Department of Mines, later becoming the Department of Mineral Resources. The primary emphasis of Scheibner's work in Australia with the NSW Department of Mines was the study of the Cretaceous and Permian Foraminifera of the Great Australian Basin in New South Wales. She also studied the South Australian and Carnarvon Basins in Western Australia, South Africa and the Indian Peninsula, and the Permian Foraminifera of the Sydney Basin. From 1972 to 1976 Scheibner was invited to participate in the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) conducted under the auspices of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The results of these studies were published in the Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP).

Views on vaccines Scheibner authored the 1993 book Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows That Vaccines Represent an Assault on the Immune System, described "highly inaccurate" in a 2000 article in the journal Pediatrics. Her work has been commonly referenced by antivaccination chiropractors.

Sudden infant death syndrome Scheibner began claiming that there is a link between vaccination and SIDS in the early 1990s, and in a book Vaccination... published in 1993. In the book and subsequently, she has speculated that "vaccination is the single biggest cause of SIDS". However data shows that since she began making her claims, vaccination rates for Birth to 2-years component of the Immunisation Schedule in Australia increased from 53% in 1990 to 92% in 2006, while SIDS deaths fell by 81% over the same period. A 2007 meta-analysis found that vaccines halve the risk of SIDS. Scheibner claimed that when Japan paused their Pertussis vaccination program in 1974, SIDS deaths disappeared in the country. However, Victorian medical practitioner Stephen Basser, writing in the Australian Skeptic magazine, said that the studies Scheibner cited did not support her statements and that she had omitted information [from the studies] which did not support her position, including data showing pertussis mortality in Japan increased 800% in the five years following the pause in Pertussis vaccination.

Shaken baby syndrome Scheibner claims that injuries and death attributed to shaken baby syndrome, including retinal bleeding, broken bones, fractured skulls and detached retinas are actually caused by vaccination although no science supports this claim. Commissioner William Carter, Q.C., who was hearing a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission enquiry in which Viera Scheibner was called as a witness, dismissed her claims on the subject of vaccines, finding that he was unsatisfied with her formal qualifications and professional experience, which he found did not "properly equip her to provide a valid professional opinion on the complex subject of immunology". As a result, he was unwilling to accept her evidence in the enquiry. In 2001, Brian Pezzutti criticised Scheibner's anti-vaccination campaigning in the NSW Legislative Council, describing Scheibner as providing "misleading information", and highlighting her March letter to the Medical Observer which "makes claims that are not supported by the documentation she referred to". Pezzutti stated that it was "very important for people to realise that the information provided by Dr Scheibner is not accurate". In 1997, the Australian Skeptics awarded her the "Bent Spoon Award". This award is presented annually to the Australian "perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of pseudoscientific piffle":

"The unanimous choice of the judges was Dr Viera Scheibner for her high profile anti-immunisation campaign which, by promoting new age and conspiracy mythology and by owing little to scientific methodologies or research, poses a serious threat to the health of Australian children."

Publications 1993 Vaccination: 100 years of orthodox research shows that vaccines represent an assault on the immune system, ISBN 0-646-15124-X 2000 Behavioural Problems in Childhood, ISBN 0-9578007-0-3

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Viera Scheibner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Viera Scheibner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Viera Scheibner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Viera Scheibner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Viera Scheibner

In research: Viera Scheibner appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Viera Scheibner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Viera Scheibner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1935 births, Australian anti-vaccination activists, Czechoslovak emigrants to Australia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Viera Scheibner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Viera Scheibner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Viera Scheibner means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Viera Scheibner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Viera Scheibner in simple terms?

Why does Viera Scheibner matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Viera Scheibner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Viera Scheibner.