Monday, February 27, 2006

Scientific Probity

Creativity should be used in designing experiments, not in formulating the results.

One of my friends was tempted to tweak the results of a scientific experiment just so that the final graphs of that paper look better. Later this person had a feeling of malaise and reverted to the earlier not-so-good, but observed, results. I am really glad that this person reported observed results and preserved the integrity of the scientific mind.

2 comments:

Madhuman said...

I totally agree with you gopi. First and foremost thing to be a good scientist is to be ethical and publish real data and not be manipulative.

Lia said...

Well said! Tweaking results hides the scientific truth, so that someone reading the paper could be mislead and that could stifle the creativity needed to really solve the problem.