Like giantg2 said. There are (at least) two types of studies: this is purely exploratory, proof-of-concept type. The reason "a group of british scientists" stud

Like giantg2 said. There are (at least) two types of studies: this is purely exploratory, proof-of-concept type. The reason "a group of british scientists" studies got such a bad reputation is because they were largely aimed at finding out new stuff, but got presented by the press as the proving things. For discovery (or university science play) you're good with samples of 10-20 people. For proving stuff you need meta-analysis of several studies, ideally including RTCs and a couple of large longitudinal ones. shrug science is complicated. Some stuff about how to do it properly has been leaking into the water supply, but overall public opinion is pretty much detached from the details and still thinks a study is a study.