Tag Archives: ethics

Negative data and positive controls

When I first came to my institution, I inherited a funded project. The project had foundered because no one had the time to work on it. In theory, I had all the resources I needed, the project just needed someone … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Negative data and positive controls

Starve and feast

We have an internal grant of $40,000 near the end of its one-year extension and we hadn’t yet spent any of it. That was because the same proposal had been submitted to external funding and both the external and the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

It’s not about ethics

My daughter has always been uncomfortable with the fact that my job includes experimenting on animals. Her main objection is that she is not sure that humans are worth saving. Recently she changed her mind, not about whether humans are … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on It’s not about ethics

Evidence based medicine

Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science by David Freedman We are taught that modern medicine is “evidence based medicine”. Evidence based medicine means rigorous scientific studies underlie every aspect of medical practice. Particularly drugs are supposed to be grounded in … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Evidence based medicine

The Lab, Part II

I recently reviewed “The Lab”, an interactive video produced by the Office of Research Integrity, in which you can play one of four people who had opportunities to minimize the damage of another person’s misconduct. I had made a beeline … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Lab, Part II

The Lab, an interactive video on science misconduct

The Office of Research Integrity developed an interactive video for Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training, called “The Lab”. I am very impressed. The video was very well done. Only one actor seemed distractingly stilted, the dialog was not distractingly … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Can old professors learn new tricks?

A matter of trust, by Christie Rizk, is about fraud and scientific misconduct. In many cases of science misconduct, trainees (postdocs and graduate students) are eventually “convicted”. One might conclude that trainees are therefore more likely than people further up … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Can old professors learn new tricks?

Grant considerations

Some professors have funny attitudes about what they could do with their grant money. As long as an experiment is sort of related to the general topic of the grant, they reason, it was fair game. When ordering supplies, the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Grant considerations