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lbonnell's picture

How the scientific method works...

 I think it is true that the Human Genome Project did not meet up to expectations. However, I don't think it was a failure- it told us the way we thought about disease and genetics was too simple. It also was a reminder of about how the scientific method works. We know from our most basic science educations that when you run an experiment you have a hypothesis, or educated guess. The problem was that before the experiment scientists were confident that they knew what the results would be and how the results would impact our lives. The scientists running the Human Genome Project should have been more cautious about their educated guesses. Like we've talked about in class scientists should question everything. In the same vein, scientists shouldn't make blanket statements before conducting a study. 

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