DISQUS

Think Gene: “Tweaking” Experimental Data

  • Andy · 1 year ago
    I don't think it will escalate so disastrously.

    The more revolutionary the result, the more attention it will attract, and the more people will attempt to reproduce it and build on it. (i.e. and the quicker deception will become apparent)

    Thus, politics and competition push scientists to the unethical, and reality pushes them back!
  • Josh Hill · 1 year ago
    I agree. However, there's still a lot of wasted money and resources, not to mention the slowing of scientific development.
  • Dave Eaton · 1 year ago
    Global Warming research is likely to get even more contentious. There have been many adjustments made to past data recently, 'adjustments' that may well be completely justified, but also need to be watched very carefully to make certain that grant-hungry researchers don't try to make chicken soup out of chicken poop. Bad data and dubious arguments that lead to the right results are not science any more than data cooked by 'denialists'.
  • John C · 1 year ago
    While working at a Stanford genome lab, I discovered with amazement what Labview image processing tools can do do micro array data.

    I had at that time seen a lot of very nice micro array data done using open air spotters as opposed to using the then more expensive lab-on-a-chip type closed system Affymetrix chip.

    I just simply brought things to a sharp focus and presented the God's truth at an instrumentation conference, dust fibers connecting the micro array dots and all. I exhorted that if anyone want to do things on the cheap, it better be in clean rooms of the quality being used by computer chip manufacturers (quite expensive).

    This made Affymetrix happy, but for a short while. Two physicists, who developed a better lab on a chip scheme than Affymetrics finally got their startup funding right after this conference!
    They were happier, especially when this all brought the cost of Affymetrix micro arraying down; their idea used some of Affymetrix technology which in turn cut their costs.

    As for all that other nice looking data ... oh! Never mind!
  • Managed Hosting · 4 weeks ago
    I just simply brought things to a sharp focus and presented the God's truth at an instrumentation conference, dust fibers connecting the micro array dots and all. I exhorted that if anyone want to do things on the cheap, it better be in clean rooms of the quality being used by computer chip manufacturers (quite expensive)
  • Cheap Leaflet Printing · 2 days ago
    Software for real time PCR machines is a perfect example of how dishonest representation of data has become so embedded in the industry of science.