Monday, March 24, 2014

Quote of the Week - Francis Collins


In the January 27, 2014 issue of Nature, Francis Collins, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, gave a statement about how the agency is attempting to reduce the incidence of sensationalized findings that do not have clinical validity. He said, "Science has long been regarded as 'self-correcting', given that it is founded on the replication of earlier work. Over the long term, that principle remains true. In the shorter term, however, the checks and balances that once ensured scientific fidelity have been hobbled. This has compromised the ability of today's researchers to reproduce others' findings."

1 comment:

George Patsourakos said...

In order to be accurate, new findings in science must be supported by previous findings on a given phenomenon.

To assume that a new finding in science is accurate simply on the basis of a single study, indicates that such a study lacks support and is probably invalid.