Murphy's law—if anything can go wrong, it will

Murphy's law—if anything can go wrong, it will

The quality of bacteriophage electron microscopy appears to be on a downward course since the 1980s. This coincides with the introduction of digital electron microscopes and a general lowering of standards, possibly due to the disappearance of several world-class electron microscopists The most important problem seems to be poor contrast. Positive staining is frequently not recognized as an und...

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong: should a pre-existing epidural catheter be discarded for an intrapartum cesarean section?

What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong: Birthday Effects and Early Tracking in the German School System

At the age of ten German pupils are given a secondary school track recommendation which largely determines the actual track choice. Track choice has major effects on the life course, mainly through labor market outcomes. Using data from the German PISA extension study, we analyze the effect of month of birth and thus relative age on such recommendations. We find that younger pupils are less oft...

Offshoring: What Can Go Wrong?

tens of thousands of miles from the home base—a client in the US offshoring IT work to a vendor in India or China, for example. Can it be done well? Offshoring has recently sustained much criticism, mainly over the issue of whether shipping IT work abroad is good for the US as a whole. I have written in that context as well, but my focus here is at the company level. Does it benefit a US firm t...

Getting it right when things go wrong.