Most Scientists 'Can't Replicate Studies By Their Peers' (bbc.com)

Science is facing a "reproducibility crisis" where more than two-thirds of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, research suggests. From a report: This is frustrating clinicians and drug developers who want solid foundations of pre-clinical research to build upon. From his lab at the University of Virginia's Centre for Open Science, immunologist Dr Tim Errington runs The Reproducibility Project, which attempted to repeat the findings reported in five landmark cancer studies. "The idea here is to take a bunch of experiments and to try and do the exact same thing to see if we can get the same results." You could be forgiven for thinking that should be easy. Experiments are supposed to be replicable. The authors should have done it themselves before publication, and all you have to do is read the methods section in the paper and follow the instructions. Sadly nothing, it seems, could be further from the truth.

Comments

Re:The trillion-dollar answer to Why.

[geekmux]

Greed? Whose greed? Foolish you. You assume greed == corporations. Greed for fame? Greed for advancement? Greed for pushing a personal agenda? Publish or Perish.

A landmark study can drive policy. It can shift entire ideologies. It can change a cultural mindset.

If you want answers to your questions, then I challenge you to dig into the five landmark cancer studies that they have found to be unrepeatable. I can think of a trillion reasons why studies might prove to be bullshit to benefit the Cancer Treatment Complex.

Do I need to research or even assume what would motivate Greed to twist facts and distort truth? No. All I have to do is look at history.

From TFA:

"Without efforts to reproduce the findings of others, we don't know if the facts out there actually represent what's happening in biology or not...It could be that we would be much further forward in terms of developing new cures and treatments."

Ah, there it is ...the other c-word no one ever wants to hear within the Cancer Treatment Complex.

'Nuff said.