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Asked by Cait to Daniela ?, ☣ Danna, Jonny, Juan, Lindsay on 10 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by scarlett.
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Danna Gifford answered on 10 Jun 2016:
Hello Cait,
Yes, sharing our findings is one of the most important things in science. These days, there are many ways people share findings. The traditional way is to write about the findings and send it off for evaluation by other scientists (called “peer review”), after which it can be included in a scientific journal.These days, a lot of people are putting their research directly on the Internet, free and available for anyone (scientist or not!) to access and comment on. One website that does this for biology research is called BioArxiv.
A more informal way that we share our research is on social media, like Twitter. I currently follow about 200 scientists, and have about 125 followers myself.
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Daniela Lobo answered on 10 Jun 2016:
Yes, sharing science is very important. Ideally, science is something you do as a member of a big team of scientists, whom which you share your findings – your successful results BUT ALSO, and maybe as important, your failures!
This is why I think so: a while ago, I was trying this experiment for many months and it never ever worked – a complete failure and I had no idea why. One day, while having coffee with other scientists from my university, I decided to share my failed experiment. The other scientist looked at me and said: “Oh that is funny actually, we tried something similar in our lab many years ago and we had problems too – this is what we did” and he went on about how they solved this seemingly impossible problem. If I have never shared and talked about my failures, they would most likely remain that way – a failed and forgotten experiment, on a corner of a lab bench.
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Jonathan Hunter answered on 10 Jun 2016:
It is important to share your ideas with other but sometimes you have to be careful. Not everyone is very honest and, just like at school, people copy other people’s work/ steal research ideas. This mostly happens before the peer review process.
To stop this happening, before working together some researchers will sign a legal document which basically say “I will tell you my secrets, if you help me and don’t tell anyone else. Then we will shared the rewards.”
This can be very important if you’re working with a business as that business’ livelihood and people’s jobs could be relying on those secrets. -
Lindsay Robinson answered on 11 Jun 2016:
Sharing your findings is one of the most important things in science. It’s really important with the other people working on your project at work. It’s also important to tell the world which you usually do in scientific journals. They’re sort of like monthly magazines where people publish their results. It means that everyone can learn from and build on the work you’ve done. That way, we all win.
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Juan Ortiz answered on 12 Jun 2016:
Yes very often we have what are called LAB MEETINGS in which all the members of one lab show their results to each other. This can be very helpful to get new ideas or when you are stuck with something difficult.
In addition, every so often, scientists from different labs studying the same thing gather in SCIENCE MEETINGS where they communicate their results to each other for example giving talks.
Another and very important way to share scientific findings are the ARTICLES that are published after careful revision by other scientists. This is the way to make the knowledge official and more or less opened to the public.
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