My recent post at Intellectual Takeout on the state of biomedical research and what it says about scientific research in general:

We’ve all heard the expression “According to research…” followed by some scientific finding that we are expected, given this prefatory expression, to accept without question.

But as it turns out, even in a field as supposedly objective as biomedicine, reliability and validity are sorely wanting.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, science writer Richard Harris bemoans the state of biomedical research:

The issue isn’t just wasted time and money. Many observers now think that biomedical research world-wide has been so compromised that it is slowing and diverting the search for new treatments and cures.

Small sample sizes and bias in research design result in findings that overstate their conclusions. “[M]ost published research findings,” Harris quotes a Stanford researcher as saying, “are false.”

Read the rest here.

Categories: Exordium

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