<rant>
It's hard out here for a scientist. Now, I'm no scientist, but as an engineer I understand the importance of accountability and the role it plays in the field.
Perusing an article this morning about recent developments the scientific community brought that thought to my attention. The article discusses how recent revelations within the scientific community have shown that most scientific publications are really full of it. In other words, a team set out to verify 53 publications, and the results of only 6 of them could be replicated. So what does that say about the ones that couldn't be verified? The author suggests that it's because most "scientists" are grossly missing the point in publishing their work. To quote the article:
"Scientists believe that the way you succeed is having splashy papers in
Science or Nature — it's not bad for them if a paper turns out to be
wrong, if it's gotten a lot of attention."
Huh. Kinda reminds me of an old saying most of you have probably heard before:
"The end justifies the means."
Most of you will also probably agree that this is phrase promotes some pretty questionable ethics. Imagine if you were one of these scientists. Is it really okay to fudge a few numbers if you think that's going to get you published? Okay, are you aware that thousands of other scientists are going to be reading your publications, and possibly basing their research off of your made-up findings? What about the companies pouring billions of dollars into R&D that might have to be thrown out simply because it was all based on a few "harmless" lies? See how much trouble this is causing?
Good God, y'all.
</rant>
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