Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Korean stem cell rout...

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sun, 1 Jan 2006, Christian M. Cepel wrote:

> I guess I'm asking how significant the Korean research was.
>
> Have all the scientists had a huge rug pulled out from under them, or 
> were they standing on their own rugs?

It was significant.  I would call it "promising" because the important 
thing is that other people in other labs are able to do the same thing. 
It doesn't matter all that much that one Korean guy can do it.  Well, so 
far, no one else was able to do the same thing, so the research hadn't 
really become important.

Science works this way:  People tell us they did things.  We try to repeat 
what they did, or extend it in some way.  If things don't work out and 
their findings aren't fitting in with those of other people, we assume 
they screwed something up.  We don't turn on a dime everytime someone 
publishes a paper making some surprising claim.  Science isn't built on 
one paper that way.

When you look back historically, certain papers seem very important and 
you can be deceived a little about how it went.  Big results get 
scrutinized to death and over the years hundreds or thousands of other 
studies are done and papers published that serve to verify the initial 
finding.  Then the initial paper becomes important but it is only because 
of the collective follow-up work of hundreds of other researchers that 
that happens.

Mike

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion