During the whole arsenic life kerfuffle, chemist Steven Benner expressed his skepticism early and often. He wrote one of the eight critiques that Science posted last week, six months after the initial paper.
Last night Benner sent me an email:
Carl:
I have now blogged on this, since the cycle of publication at Science is rather slow.
Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the way it has to be becasue each manuscript has to go through a thorough review process by expertise on that subject for the much needed verification and authentication- we are all too aware of many scientific studies that are not reproducible- this waste a lot of time and resources that can certainly go towards better use.
Yahoo, who said that poison couldn’t be a good thing!?
@ Bernard Kwabi-Addo:
Agreed, but here we are discussing a study which people judge as not reproducible (if done thoroughly, without possible contamination, having supportable hypotheses, et cetera). So for better or for worse, the process can be improved.
During the whole arsenic life kerfuffle, chemist Steven Benner expressed his skepticism early and often. He wrote one of the eight critiques that Science posted last week, six months after the initial paper.
Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the way it has to be becasue each manuscript has to go through a thorough review process by expertise on that subject for the much needed verification and authentication- we are all too aware of many scientific studies that are not reproducible- this waste a lot of time and resources that can certainly go towards better use.
Yahoo, who said that poison couldn’t be a good thing!?
@ Bernard Kwabi-Addo:
Agreed, but here we are discussing a study which people judge as not reproducible (if done thoroughly, without possible contamination, having supportable hypotheses, et cetera). So for better or for worse, the process can be improved.
Speeding up response times usually makes the process more efficient. (Unless non-linearities of complex systems make stuff like in-the-loop oscillations occur. Sometimes blog posting and commenting remind of that. =D)