That enterprise, in turn, rests on a system of free inquiry, peer review, reproduction by others of findings, and acceptance that some hypotheses will be proved wrong. It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. Although the body of their work still stands, she noted that some of their theories proved to be wrong and were subsequently corrected by their colleagues. Individual scientists consider alternatives prior to publishing and choose the one that is best supported by the evidence they have at the time.
Publication then allows the wider scientific community to continue the same process.
Today I want to bring to your attention a legal practice that has the potential to seriously disrupt the scientific enterprise that has been so productive and is the subject of your Study. Recently plaintiffs in tort cases have begun to pursue civil claims against university scientific researchers and their universities for alleged damages suffered that are traced back and linked to the results of their research, often conducted 20 to 30 years previously. This is research conducted by university scientists to increase the public pool of knowledge and that had been subject to the scrutiny of peer review and open publication. We are not talking about research purposely conducted for the manufacture of products and in which the researcher is a paid employee or financial beneficiary. There have been two prominent recent cases.