Monday, March 30, 2009

Question three.

Whoops, I apologize! If most of y'all haven't noticed, question three and its response hadn't been posted yet. 
- Pham

What criteria should be used in deciding whether data can be legitimately discarded? When a scientist uses his or her "intuition" as the basis for deciding whether to ignore certain data, is the question of the ethics of this action dependent on whether the conclusion reached by the scientist is later proven to be correct?

Although Millikan didn’t fabricate his data, he picked and chose what he wanted to present, which showed that he wasn’t necessarily honest. If the data doesn’t prove one’s original purpose, then he can delete his data. If it doesn’t majorly affect human / animal life or the environment, then the data can be discarded. A scientist’s ethics / morals are always used to determine when to eliminate unnecessary information. 

Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. SHLYNN!!!March 30, 2009 at 6:44 AM

    If the data Millikan had chosen was a minority in the study, he could be inferring false information and passing that information along to the public, making this an unethical practice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katelyn!!March 30, 2009 at 6:57 AM

    Even though Milikan's dishonest research was only a minor part of the research, I think it could still affect the legitimacy of the whole project, which could lead to public health dangers and other hazards.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LaPlaceMarch 30, 2009 at 7:39 AM

    I agree with Shlynn and Katelyn. What meaning does research have if the researcher can pick only data supporting her hypothesis? I can prove just about anything that way. The goal of a scientific study is to find out whether one factor affects another, not to support the researcher's hypothesis about it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MereMarch 31, 2009 at 6:50 AM

    I agree with Mrs. Laplace, Shlynn, and Katelyn. The researcher shouldn't be able to pick and choose what data he wants in order to support his hypothesis and still be considered ethical or honest. All data should be presented in order for the research to be considered legitimate and the researcher ethical.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LeahRedwineApril 2, 2009 at 2:32 PM

    Although Milikan's conclusions were not legitimate, I dissagree with his science ethics being in question. Discrimination of data is a commonly accepted practice in the scientific research field, he did not fabricate any results.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Olivia BradberryApril 3, 2009 at 5:32 AM

    I do not think that Milikan had the right to choose which information he wanted to present. It greatly affected the outcome of the research.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)