When will we stop giving our money to research that’s false ? – Daniela P.

Right off the bat Rigor Mortis catches your attention by saying, “Science progresses by testing ideas indirectly, throwing out the ones that seem wrong, and building on those best supported by the facts at hand. Gradually, scientists build stories that do a better job of approximating the truth” (page 5, preface) which implies that now a days scientists out on the fields focus more on trying to find “cures” and making drugs that will “help us” without actually checking on their work and properly making sure that these treatments will do us good in the long run. There have been cases in which scientist try out new medicine and end up harming the tested. Glenn Begley explained that a lot of the times when scientists aren’t able to reproduce the same product multiple times the product would be dropped, meaning that if the product does somehow get out and is tested the scientists know that something was not done correctly and that the researchers did not do multiples trials on the drug.

“Eroom’s law” to describe the steadily worsening state of drug development. “Eroom”, they explained, is “Moore” spelled backward. Moore’s law charts the exponential progress in the efficiency of computer chips; the pharmaceutical industry, however, is headed in the opposite direction.” (page 18, chapter 1) In a way that is saying that instead if heading forward with our research sometimes we are not moving at all or moving at a very slow rate. Not saying that there isn’t any new treatments that are being made but that because of the fact that the research isn’t always fully correctly done and that makes us have set backs. In my mind that makes me wonder what is to come in the future knowing that there are many things that are challenging our scientists do their job in helping the human race be healthy. Jack Scannell and his colleagues predicted that, ” If you extrapolate the trend, starting in 1950, you’ll find that drug development essentially comes to a halt in 2040.” (page 18. chapter 1) And that is something that is truly scary to think about. To think that there are illnesses such as, Cancer, Alzheimers, Diabetes, Epilepsy, and HIV that already don’t have any cures is heart breaking to know but to also know that if we don’t start paying more attention to the researchers/scientists studies we will eventually start seeing dozens of more illnesses that aren’t only deadly but contagious as well.

“Biomedical research is challenging even under the best circumstances.” (page 28, chapter 1) I believe that scientists knowing they have the ability to make something such as a drug that could potentially cure someones illness, they should professionally know that it requires many tests and trials to get something to work as perfectly as they can. They should be able to create the substance over and over again and get the same results when tried on multiple subjects. They should be the ones to correct themselves with help of one an other.

Rigor Mortis not only helped me see in just a preface and chapter that science is something that is so big and challenging to understand but that with the proper training that even I in the future could help invent a cure that will help those in need.