The Drama Over Project Encode, And Why Big Science And Small Science Are Different
Encode Project On the Cover of Nature The project published around 30 papers in three leading scientific journal groups. © Nature Sept. 6, 2012In a novel form of peer review, a biologist has given an colorfully fiery critique of a genome research consortium. Here's why. If every new abstract read like Dan Graur's latest contribution, people wouldn't need any TLC reality shows--they could get all the drama they'd want from research papers. Graur's new paper, a takedown of a much-ballyhooed genomics project, contains some of the most fiery language ever to appear in the staid, typically decorous world of scientific literature. On the phone, Graur is just as frank: "Their data analysis is obscene," he said. "It was horrible. This is not science." Here's the story: The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project was a five-year effort involving hundreds of people who sought to unravel the functions of so-called non-coding, or "junk," sections...