The Reproduceibility Crisis- Eleanor J

The first thing that caught my eye and surprised me while reading the first chapter of the book Rigor Mortis, is how the author made it clear to the reader that research is key. For example, the author, Richard Harris, included many sections with statistics that he not only went into depth about but also cited. “The American Society for Cell Biology surveyed its members in 2014 and found that 71 percent of those who responded had at some point been unable to replicate a published result. “Two thirds of the time, the scientists suspected that the original finding had been false positive”(Pg 16). Later in the chapter, while scientist Barker was being interviewed, he states that this issue of non-reliable science has to be a problem to at least one industry. “Everybody says, ‘Its not my problem'” Barker says, “But it has to be someone’s problem” (pg. 22). If I was Barker in this situation, I would not say it’s other industry’s  problem except the scientists trying to make new drugs with false science backing them up. Based on what I read in this chapter, if I was a scientist in these labs, to fix this problem I would always start from the beginning instead of relying on past science said to be true. If you really want an affecting drug to put on the shelves, then wouldn’t it make more since to start from the beginning by yourself with your own team?

When I hear or see scientific research in media, I see articles and papers that says research is true  and accurate. However when I was reading this book, I began to realize that some research is not always correct and proven. I was recently reading that a popular pesticide might be harming bees in America. Now when I think of this study, it makes me wonder if that research was only taken from a few tests and not enough to prove it true.

In the chapter, I heard about a brain tumor that Randy Curtin had been diagnosed with. I also learned that this kind of tumor often goes unnoticed and hasn’t made progress medically in over 50 years. Joe Biden had even lost his son to this cancer. If I were to research into any condition I have read about so far, I would look into learning about this specific cancer. Now I know that the correct term to use for what this chapter was all about, is called the “reproduceibility crisis”.