Animalcules, Their Discoverer, and His Biographer

Abstract

Fictionalized and dramatized portrayals of science tend to focus misleadingly on breakthroughs, positives, and eureka moments. In the real laboratory, however, negatives can be just as influential. I recall several occasions over the years when failures have spawned considerable success. One was the story, told to me by a respiratory virologist, whose frustrating inability to recover an expected pathogen from pathological specimens triggered a lengthy but eventually successful search for the real cause of a particular condition. Another researcher used to delight student audiences with a parallel story from the world of marine ecosystems. There is also still a substantial argument that meta-analyses in some areas of medical research are disproportionately weighted in favour of positive results when investigators do not report negative findings.