tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post5097011479190675398..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Scientific fraud and why it happens--or how could it NOT?Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-48184235360125811982013-02-06T07:45:11.058-05:002013-02-06T07:45:11.058-05:00I agree with all but that we are pristine by compa...I agree with all but that we are pristine by comparison. I think--and I believe we have regularly or routinely said this--the anthropological fact that we are part of society, we're human and fallible, we mirror our times today as our forebears did theirs.<br /><br />But acquiescence is the first step towards tyranny, and there must always be resistance to our foibles, lest they get farther out of hand.<br /><br />Naturally, those who do resist are almost by definition the minority within. Because science, like any system of its sort, is a hierarchy and has masses who are for one reason or another unaware of the issues, or too vulnerable to try to resist them. Systems keep their masses under control.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-27204385883838645632013-02-06T05:47:59.755-05:002013-02-06T05:47:59.755-05:00I'm always kind of amused when scientists fret...I'm always kind of amused when scientists fret about too many researchers, wasting money, etc. Look around at what goes on in the non-science world - bogus litigation for billions. Crooked politicians buying votes by wasting public money. Subsidies paid to the politically connected. Half a billion dollars passed to Solyndra through a crooked connection to the US president that... vanishes, everyone knows it, and no one does anything. By the standards of the world we live in, scientists are pristine. They don't get paid much and occasionally generate things of great value. The real question is not whether they are deserving of public funds - it's why they continue being honest while getting treated like dirt by the crooks in Congress that sell the country out every day for campaign money. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-31244882166952787622013-01-31T08:53:12.442-05:002013-01-31T08:53:12.442-05:00Dear Ken,
Thanks for the advice. I am sure I wou...Dear Ken,<br /><br />Thanks for the advice. I am sure I would never receive it from any of my advisers! We are too busy talking of grants and pubs. It is a pity that academics shame students if they do not become their clones following in their footsteps. A shame because only 10% will really have the option. Thus 90% of students ultimately feel like failures. My girlfriend has written a topic about this to be published in the Chronicle of higher education. Specifically, the need for graduate education to graduate. (it is not published yet)<br /><br />I am exploring a few different paths that hopefully I can share with you when and if they come to fruition. One is directly related to this post on reproducibility-a practical solution.<br /><br />Again thanks for your honesty and insight. Stranger to Stranger.Josh Nicholsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-14575046846663061832013-01-29T19:51:00.966-05:002013-01-29T19:51:00.966-05:00A very tough question, Josh. You are a capable, c...A very tough question, Josh. You are a capable, curious, energetic guy and probably can find a place in the System. Whether that likely leads to a good life any more is an open question.<br /><br />Probably, those of us who have been in the game a long time, have seen its better days (as we feel about it, at least) and who were lucky enough to do well in it, but are rather soured at what it's become, are not the right people to ask.<br /><br />For most--by far most--people, the greatest impact will be by teaching. If you like that kind of thing, and I think your enthusiasm would make you very good at it, it can be very satisfying. <br /><br />There are down sides--grumbly students, grading exams--but if you teach 100 students a year, say, and they live on average 60 more years, that's 6,000 person-years of potential influence you can have _every year_! Compare that to the modal number of citations for most scientific papers (i.e., zero or one) and the almost immeasurably short shelf-life of papers. Is the grueling struggle in today's environment worth it?<br /><br />Teaching at any level, even (or especially?) high school, one can be satisfying, build community, have a personal life, and feel useful. <br /><br />Science writing of any sort, working in social media, doing an accurate and knowledgeable job of science journalism (a rare thing!), can be an important and also satisfying way of life.<br /><br />Of course, it's in the interest of graduate programs to make you feel that would be a kind of failure, since their job is to magnify their importance through their students. That's fine as far as it goes, but it's your life, after all.<br /><br />There are, of course, other completely different ways to live that can be as satisfying. I rather fell into what I've been doing (having been other things before), whether for good or not, but I was not one who marched through the system the way so many do today.<br /><br />Now you have prominent contacts and at least one relative who made it in the big time, and that may make it harder to consider other avenues. It's up to you, of course.<br /><br />How the current atmosphere will change, and/or what would happen if funding largely dried up, or what universities will do when codgers like me retire, are all unknowns.<br /><br />The bottom line is: look in a mirror and decide who you see there--being sure not to care who others might see there. That way, at least, to the extent one can know ones-self (never an easy job), the decision will at least be yours alone.<br /><br />Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-74968512294242527342013-01-29T19:40:17.046-05:002013-01-29T19:40:17.046-05:00Well, of course whether or not it's worth it t...Well, of course whether or not it's worth it to play the game is entirely up to you, but fortunately, at least, the rules of the game are clear and open. In part thanks to Drs Fang and Casadevall. Anne Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-81257669620840782462013-01-29T19:30:02.388-05:002013-01-29T19:30:02.388-05:00Refreshing honest and sad at the same time. I am ...Refreshing honest and sad at the same time. I am a 4th year graduate student and I debate daily what I should do next... Is it worth it to play the game? Josh Nicholsonnoreply@blogger.com