Scientific progress despite irreproducibility: A seeming paradox

Scientific progress despite irreproducibility: A seeming paradox.

It appears paradoxical that science is producing outstanding new results and theories at a rapid rate at the same time that researchers are identifying serious problems in the practice of science that cause many reports to be irreproducible and invalid. Certainly, the practice of science needs to be improved, and scientists are now pursuing this goal. However, in this perspective, we argue that...

Shortage in general practice despite the feminisation of the medical workforce: a seeming paradox? A cohort study

BACKGROUND Female medical students often prefer primary care specialties, while male students appear to be attracted to hospital specialties. Notwithstanding the steady feminisation of medicine, in many countries there are still difficulties in recruiting trainees for general practice. This seeming paradox raises the question on what specific role gender plays in a specialty choice. The authors...

Reflections on the Irreproducibility of Scientific Papers.

Weak statistical standards implicated in scientific irreproducibility : Nature News & Comment

Johnson compared the strength of two types of tests: frequentist tests, which measure how unlikely a finding is to occur by chance, and Bayesian tests, which measure the likelihood that a particular hypothesis is correct given data collected in the study. The strength of the results given by these two types of tests had not been compared before, because they ask slightly different types of ques...

Constants and scientific progress.

Scientists like constants (a personal favorite is Avogadro's number). It is no wonder, because not only does defining a constant represent a major scientific breakthrough, but as human beings we like things we can rely on, things that stay the same and that bring us consistency, stability, and a way to understand ourselves and the world around us. On the other hand, scientists create and welcom...