4 ms·
My favorite part of this story is how incredibly strong biases are toward existing hypotheses. "Lichenologists all thought that the fungi in the partnership be
by hyperion2010 9y ago
My favorite part of this story is how incredibly strong biases are toward existing hypotheses.
"Lichenologists all thought that the fungi in the partnership belonged to a group called the ascomycetes—so Spribille had only searched for ascomycete genes. Almost on a whim, he broadened his search to the entire fungal kingdom, and found something bizarre."
Sometimes we need to just throw our hypotheses out the window and look at all the data our tools can give us, especially now that sequencing is so cheap.
- GeekyBear 9y agoHere's another story that demonstrates the bias towards an existing hypotheses, featuring a newly minted recipient of the Nobel prize whose work was ridiculed by his peers and by a rather famous recipient of multiple Nobel prizes. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-chemistry-idUSTRE7941EP20111005 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-chemistry-idUSTRE794...