Saturday, 1 October 2011

Tom Clynes on arsenic existence The Loom

Yesterday I authored concerning the arsenic existence saga, motivated with a lengthy retrospective feature by Tom Clynes in Popular Science. As I recommend the piece, I expressed bookings since it passed across the researchers trapped by writers spin around the occasions, once the actual history doesn t support that.

Clynes (whom I ve never met) e-mailed me at night with this particular comments, that they permitted me to talk about:

Carl,

Interesting discuss my Popular Science feature on Felisa Wolfe-Simon s arsenic-existence saga. Somewhat, I believe you re on target, though I must provide a little of clarification: Through the story, after i convey a disagreement produced by somebody that s on one for reds from the problem or any other, it doesn t imply that I always subscribe to that argument.

To that particular finish, I d prefer to add a little of context to some paragraph that you simply quote, concerning the storm of critique and also the paper s authors going subterranean. You stick to the excerpt together with your comment that Clynes has us think that this barrage of remarkable, brutal critique (or possibly questions from journalists) forced Wolf-Simon and her co-workers to enter witness protection.

Really, I do not think that, nor would I've my visitors accept is as true. It could have been helpful for your visitors that you should have incorporated my next paragraph, which causes it to be obvious that i'm actually spotlighting each side of the polarized dialogue regarding this specific point:

Microbiologist Jonathan Eisen from the College of California at Davis known as the possible lack of response absurd and told Carl Zimmer from Slate, They completed science by pr release and press conference. They are hypocritical when they state that the only real response ought to be within the scientific literature.

Though I didn t condition my estimation within the story (better for visitors to determine on their own), I'll here: I believe that Eisen is around the money here.

Another opinions: Will I believe that the arsenic-existence paper was problematic Yes. Do It that a number of its conclusions is going to be dissolved by further analysis Yes. Will I think that NASA s over-blown-up method of publicizing that which was really an extremely understated paper was pork-handed, and harmful to everybody involved In a major way.

Will I think the paper never must have been released No. Inside a profession where youthful researchers are encouraged to avoid debate because they build their careers, Wolfe-Simon pressed against a paradigm and searched for solutions with a very large questions. She passed using it . peer-review hoops (imperfect because they might be) at Science as other researchers must. Yes, her research was imperfect company, she likely overreached but lots of scientific papers are problematic, and several youthful scientists get carried away. If researchers aren t prepared to subject themselves to the potential of failure, science can t possibly progress.

Significantly, there s absolutely nothing to indicate that Wolfe-Simon did anything dishonest, that might have justified the shrill tone and sweeping proportions from the response cheap she was designated one of the paper s 11 authors. True, she was charge author, also it was her hypothesis. However it s surprising that Ron Oremland, the lab director and principal investigator, isn't pointed out within the criticisms.

If my story includes a main point here, this is within this quote through the College of Colorado s Alan Townsend: Absent major ethical violations, no junior researcher filled with adoration for a concept warrants crucifixion for any professional failure or two. If your paper is problematic, it ought to be ignored. The researcher shouldn't.

October first, 2011 9:29 AM by Carl Zimmer in Arsenic existence 2 comments Feed Trackback >



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