Life Sciences Commons^™

The Imbalance Between Experiment And Theory In Biology: The Need For Theory-Directed Modeling, M. L. Fidelman, D. C. Mikulecky

Experimentation Collection

In biological and biomedical research, the vast majority of resources are focused on conducting experiments. Most of these experiments utilize animals. Only a tiny amount of resources is spent on theory and modeling. It is our contention and the basic theme of this paper that the imbalance between theory and experiment in biology produces very poor science. The implications of which are that many of the experiments conducted have little real scientific meaning or value and, therefore, go hand-in-hand with unnecessary animal use and suffering. Given the finite resources available for research, the redirection of significant resources from an almost …