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If the IRB regime had existed in the 40's, I doubt it would've have stopped this and other experimentation. IRBs are effective at checking back everyday scient
by nmrm2 11y ago
If the IRB regime had existed in the 40's, I doubt it would've have stopped this and other experimentation.
IRBs are effective at checking back everyday scientists. I somehow doubt an IRB panel would be need to be consulted by someone powerful enough to have the authority to load a crapton of bacteria onto a boat and spray it into SF.
- pdkl95 11y agoOf course it wouldn't have stopped everything, but it would have helped - probably a lot. When everybody is getting their 3rd-party stamp of approval, those that do not are a lot more conspicuous. Also, one of the steps in a typical IRB process is to sanity catch mistakes. As mentioned in another post, the people spraying bacteria over SF probably believe they were doing a "safe" experiment about dispersion properties. In an environment were it was regularly expected use an approval process, there might have been a chance for someone with biological knowledge to inform the experimenters of their error.