Graduate student Robert Haupt and research fellow Stuart Weston don protective gear before entering a U-Md. lab. (Graduate student Robert Haupt and research fellow Stuart Weston don protective gear before entering a U-Md. lab. Mark Teske/University of Maryland School of Medicine) https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/14/inside-lab-where-scientists-are-working-urgently-fight-coronavirus-outbreak/ Timothy Sheahan, a virologist at the University of North Carolina, said that the science is moving so fast and early results are emerging so quickly that it has been hard at times to know which experiments to prioritize, and even which results to trust. The benefit of scientists openly sharing results is that people aren’t slowing down research efforts by withholding information, but it adds a new challenge — the research is coming out so fast it may not be vetted or have been repeated multiple times to make sure it is right. “The pace of research is so fast, your top priority today could vanish into thin air the next day,” Sheahan said. “People are posting pilot experiments; they’re writing papers on single studies that probably haven’t been repeated or reproduced or done with the same rigor you normally would do your science. It’s hard to know what to believe.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/14/inside-lab-where-scientists-are-working-urgently-fight-coronavirus-outbreak/
Timothy Sheahan, a virologist at the University of North Carolina, said that the science is moving so fast and early results are emerging so quickly that it has been hard at times to know which experiments to prioritize, and even which results to trust. The benefit of scientists openly sharing results is that people aren’t slowing down research efforts by withholding information, but it adds a new challenge — the research is coming out so fast it may not be vetted or have been repeated multiple times to make sure it is right.
“The pace of research is so fast, your top priority today could vanish into thin air the next day,” Sheahan said. “People are posting pilot experiments; they’re writing papers on single studies that probably haven’t been repeated or reproduced or done with the same rigor you normally would do your science. It’s hard to know what to believe.”