John Dupre, Steven Goodman, Nicole C. Nelson, Robert Weinberg
Moderators: David Peterson, Pamela Reinagel
Abstract
Organizers/Moderators:
Pamela Reinagel (UCSD, Biology)
David Peterson (UCLA, Sociology)
Metascience has emerged as a powerful force in the evaluation and reform of science. Because much of this activism emerged from the social and clinical sciences, there are significant questions regarding the degree to which diagnostic tools and interventions appropriate in these domains can be transferred to other sciences. This symposium will examine what it means to do rigorous or reproducible research in the field of experimental Biology, and how metascientific initiatives and interventions reflect some misunderstandings of how Biology makes progress and meets accepted scientific values. This will be explored from multiple viewpoints: Philosophy of Science; Sociology of Science; Biostatistics; and from within Biology itself. The goal of this symposium is to foster a constructive dialogue about the diversity of scientific practice to help make science reform more meaningful and nuanced.
Speakers:
- Philosophy of Science: John Dupré (Univ. Exeter, UK) on the diversity of scientific methods across sciences, and unique aspects of scientific inference in Biology
- Sociology of Science: Nicole Nelson (Univ. Wisconsin) on how experimental biologists understand the meaning and function of replication in science
- Biostatistics: Steven Goodman (Stanford Univ.) on research reproducibility and rigor in clinical, preclinical and basic Biology research
- Biology: Robert Weinberg (MIT) a cancer biologist’s critique of the premise of replication projects in cancer research