Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions: Harris, Richard: 9780465097906: Amazon.com: Books

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Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions Hardcover – April 4, 2017

by Richard Harris (Author)

4.4 226 ratings

Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

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An essential book to understanding whether the new miracle cure is good science or simply too good to be true

American taxpayers spend $30 billion annually funding biomedical research, but over half of these studies can't be replicated due to poor experimental design, improper methods, and sloppy statistics. Bad science doesn't just hold back medical progress, it can sign the equivalent of a death sentence for terminal patients. In Rigor Mortis, Richard Harris explores these urgent issues with vivid anecdotes, personal stories, and interviews with the top biomedical researchers. We need to fix our dysfunctional biomedical system -- before it's too late.

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Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

April 4, 2017
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0465097901
ISBN-13

978-0465097906
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

Named by Amazon as one of their "Best Nonfiction Books of the Month"

Named one of PRI/SCIENCE FRIDAY's "Best Science Books of 2017"

"Rigor Mortis provides an excellent summation of the case for fixing science."―SLATE

"Harris makes a strong case that the biomedical research culture is seriously in need of repair."―Nature

"Rigor Mortis effectively illustrates what can happen when a convergence of social, cultural, and scientific forces...conspires to create a real crisis of confidence in the research process."―Science

"A rewarding read for anyone who wants to know the unvarnished truth about how science really gets done."―Financial Times

"Rigor Mortis effectively illustrates what can happen when a convergence of social, cultural, and scientific forces, as well as basic human motivation, conspires to create a real crisis of confidence in the research process."―SCIENCE

"Harris makes a strong case that the biomedical research culture is seriously in need of repair."―Nature

"Rigor Mortis is rife with examples of things that go awry in medical studies, how they happen, and how they can be avoided and fixed. For the most part, academic biomedical scientists are not evil, malicious, or liars at heart."―Ars Technica

"An alarming and highly readable summation of what has been called the 'reproducibility crisis' in science--the growing realization that large swathes of the biomedical literature may be wrong."―Spectrum Magazine

"This engaging book will inform and challenge readers who care about the public image of science, the state of peer review, and US funding for science."―Physics Today

"This behind-the-scenes look at biomedical research will appeal to students and academics. A larger audience of impacted patients and taxpayers will also find this critical review fascinating and alarming. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries."―Library Journal

"[An] easy-reading but hard-hitting exposé..."―Kirkus

"Just as 'post-truth' was selected as the word of the year in 2016 for its political connotations, Richard Harris masterfully shows how this pertains to science, too. Rigor Mortis is a compelling, sobering, and important account of bad biomedical research, and the pressing need to fix a broken culture."
―Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute and author of The Patient Will See You Now

"Science remains the best way to build knowledge and improve health, but as Richard Harris reminds us in Rigor Mortis, it is also carried out by humans subject to 'publish or perish' and other perverse incentives. Tapping into these tensions, Harris deftly weaves gripping tales of sleuthing with possible paths out of what some call a crisis. Read this book if you want to see how biomedical research is reviving itself."―Ivan Oransky, Co-Founder of Retraction Watch and Distinguished Writer In Residence at New York University

"Richard Harris's elegant and compelling dissection of scientific research is must-reading for anyone seeking to understand today's troubled research enterprise-and how to save it."
―Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT

"Richard Harris has written an essential guide to how scientific research may arrive at the wrong conclusions. From the 235 ways that scientists can fool themselves to the misuse of statistics and the persistence of unsound research methods, Harris outlines the problems underlying the so-called 'reproducibility crisis' in biomedical research and introduces readers to the people working on solutions."―Christie Aschwanden, lead science writer for FiveThirtyEight and health columnist for the Washington Post

About the Author

Richard Harris is one of the nation's most celebrated science journalists, covering science, medicine, and the environment for more than thirty years for NPR, and the three-time winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award. He lives in Washington, DC.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (April 4, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465097901
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465097906
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #266,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #76 in Medical Research (Books)
- #85 in Medical Ethics (Books)
- #85 in Scientific Research

Customer Reviews:
4.4 226 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

226 global ratings

1 star

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Customers say

Customers find the book an awesome, well-written read with informative content. They also describe it as concise and accurate, providing a concise and detailed depiction of academic. However, some customers are aghast at the sloppy experiments.

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Reading experience Content Readability Research quality Entertainment value

15 customers mention "Reading experience"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book an awesome, well written read with a compelling and fair description. They also say it's a great book for scientists and students.

"This is an excellent book to give information about the frailties and flaws of medical research...." Read more

"...I think that this is an important topic, and the author does a good review of many of the issues in the world of medicine...." Read more

"...sciences but is interested in scientific integrity it would be a very useful read." Read more

"...The focus on academia leaves the message somewhat out of balance. Good book." Read more

10 customers mention "Content"8 positive2 negative

Customers find the book informative.

"...It appears to be well researched and it says what needs to be done, but not how to do it. He does tell us how others are working on it...." Read more

"Good information but too much unnecessary details and sometimes boring. It could be condensed in my opinion to less than third..." Read more

"I have recomended this book widely. Excellent exposition on the state of basic science medical research and how it is providing a shaky foundation..." Read more

"...result is that there are a number of sacred cows that regularly spawn bad science, but which both academics and publishers have refused to abandon,..." Read more

8 customers mention "Readability"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-written, compelling, and accurate. They also say it's a concise and accurate depiction of the state of academic.

"...many articles and books on similar topics and find that this was a very easy read...." Read more

"...Good writing and editing make this an easy read on such an important subject." Read more

"This book is a concise and accurate depiction of the state of academic biomedical research...." Read more

"A very well written analysis of the struggles facing academic laboratories today...." Read more

6 customers mention "Research quality"0 positive6 negative

Customers find the research quality of the book sloppy, flawed, and useless.

"...It is a major pain and turned out to be rather useless. I gave up and read the book." Read more

"...I'm aghast at the sloppy experiments, although it is understandable in some cases...." Read more

"...: lack of reproducibility of experimental results, wrong interpretation of statistical results, cherry..." Read more

"...This explains why there is an increase in retractions. Mistakes happen at all levels of science, it is part of life...." Read more

3 customers mention "Entertainment value"0 positive3 negative

Customers find the book boring and not readable. They also mention that it has unnecessary details and is a chore to get through.

"...Minus one star because it's just not that readable of a book, it was a chore to get through, luckily I had a lot of Nootropics and a modicum of..." Read more

"...It was a little more repetitive than I prefer, but it can get pretty technical at times so that wasn't always a bad thing." Read more

"Good information but too much unnecessary details and sometimes boring. It could be condensed in my opinion to less than third..." Read more

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Anthony Sanchez

Excellent material and necessary reading, but don't get it on cd.

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018

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This is an excellent book to give information about the frailties and flaws of medical research. It is not expected that every study be ground breaking or to hold up to further scrutiny. But it is expected that true science will seek out the frailties and flaws in scientific research. The point of this book is to demonstrate the problems in achieving these goals and expectations. We as a society are spending many millions of dollars on cancer research and research of other types. We are expecting that this work will have tangible results. This is not happening to the extent expected. It's partly because researchers are publishing results that fall far short of the truth. What's the harm? The harm is that when a study is accepted in a respected journal, other researchers take it as validation of the results and then try to build upon it. But if what they are building upon is wrong, then what follow up studies are dead on arrival. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the follow up work will consider the problem to be the original work. They will more likely look the wrong way to decide on the problem. Bringing this problem into the focus is not harmful to science. It should be the point of science.

That said, I bought this book in hard copy and cd. The hard copy was for my daughter. The cd was so I can listen to it in the car or while doing other chores around the house. The cd is poorly formatted for my need. The tracks are set at about 30 minutes each and good luck if you lose your space or want to transfer the disk before you finished a chapter. It is a major pain and turned out to be rather useless. I gave up and read the book.

One person found this helpful

Jonathan Roseland

The bane of billion dollar bad science...

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2020

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The media could not be loaded.

This book is a real black pill (a grim truth) for those who are optimistic about medical science delivering us cures to disease.

Too often we imagine that scientists and the institutions of medical science are like the benevolent clergy of the church and idealized organized religion - that they are on an uncorrupted, principled mission with the purest of intentions to uplift humanity, empowering us all with the truth we need to live better. Unfortunately, this is pretty far from reality, often scientists and especially the institutions of science, are more like politicians and the institutions of politics. They are motivated a lot more by selfish personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement than an unflappable devotion to the truth. When they learn that they are wrong, they double down on their assumptions, retreat into dogmatic positions and staunchly ignore evidence of their errors instead of correcting the record - this lack of humility has an astronomical civilizational cost to all of us.

It's a crucial warning about the shoddiness of much of medical science and an important call to action to do better because our collective health depends on it. If you're a scientist or considering a career in science or academia you should read it - otherwise, you can pass on it. Minus one star because it's just not that readable of a book, it was a chore to get through, luckily I had a lot of Nootropics and a modicum of righteous indignation to keep me wide awake as I was flipping the pages.

2 people found this helpful

A necessary book that should be taught in medical schools

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2017

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(Quick review: Many biomedical scientists are already aware of the content of this book, but for academics in other fields, industry professionals, doctors, or people who plan to donate money to biomedical research, I highly recommend it.)

Biomedical science is falling sway to the law of diminishing returns. These are no longer the days when new cures pop up out of nowhere during quick tests. Complex new technologies have opened up millions of new possibilities for discovering agents of disease or possible treatments, while creating countless new opportunities for failure in the process. In the 21st century, it is exponentially harder to find new drugs than it was in the 20th, and increasingly, young researchers around the world are feeling the grind.

Luckily, science has all the tools of the Enlightenment at its disposal to expose mistaken research and weed out bad methods. There are regular conferences, internal reviews, retractions, and impeccable science journalism at the journals Nature and Science especially. The more exuberant apologists for science will tell us that unlike religious prophecy, science gains from failed predictions. So, is there really a problem?

Richard Harris, NPR science reporter, argues in this book that yes, diminishing returns is creating real problems for science. This book reads like a long NPR story, so it would probably make a great audiobook, except that I wouldn't recommend listening to it in the car: some of Harris's findings would probably make you slam on the brakes. Despite the best intentions of hundreds of whistleblowers, and an institutional recognition that things need to change, much of the medical research funded by tax money and grieving parents is… well… a word that Harris refuses to put down on print.

On a structural level, the stakes are very high. A researcher might spend a decade working based on false assumptions, or become widely known in his field for a lauded finding that might not be exactly true. And there is no prize for discovering that a result is false. Researchers may take months or years failing to reproduce a result, with the only reward being the ability to grumble about it at next year’s conference. Scientists are human and there are always little problems at the interpersonal level, but when those problems are well-known to everyone and seem unavoidable, they become part of the structure of science itself.

The result is that there are a number of sacred cows that regularly spawn bad science, but which both academics and publishers have refused to abandon, resulting in the 70-90% rate of inaccuracy among published studies. The inexcusable becomes normal: there’s the overconfidence in mouse studies. There’s the sloppy use of cell lines, which is no longer tolerated in industry studies. There’s the infamous “p = 0.05” standard, which is well known by biostatisticians to be too loose, but which would slow biomedical publication to a near halt if it were abandoned. Researchers are evaluated on quantity of publications, rather than quality, during job interviews. Data sharing in biomedical science lags far behind other fields, due to intense competition for funding. Worst of all, research universities do not offer classes in methodology where problems like these might be discussed. Researchers trying to evaluate recent literature and get new results are forced to learn “on their feet,” either in the laboratory or at conferences.

This is now recognized as a crisis throughout the field. In 2015 a discussion was opened as to how things might be improved. Unfortunately, besides closer attention to detail at the top journals, there is no consensus about what can be done. The hypercompetitive environment that promotes false results and sloppy standards relies on the same psychological drive that causes good researchers to seek out hidden methodological problems. The most frightening question is, in the long run, can these problems actually be fixed? At a structural level, the law of diminishing returns (called Eroom’s Law in the book) means that research is going to get more and more expensive — the possibilities may still be exciting, but institutions are going to pour more and more cash to complete any given study, and the desire for positive results is going to be more, not less. The import of this is that all of us, doctors and laypeople alike, will need to be more and more skeptical of research findings as time goes on.

Although biomedical researchers may want to insist that this book is a compilation of challenges rather than fatal flaws, and that their research continues to save lives, any academic or journalist with a serious interest in the truth needs to read it, in order to understand how biological research in general operates today. When I, a humanities grad student, explained to my biomedical researcher friend the type of procedure that has been proposed by my colleagues for applying “cognitive science” to artistic behavior, he laughed out loud. When you know how modern science really works, and the vast number of pitfalls that might be hiding between the lines of any individual paper, the uses to which non-experts put your work can sound naive or even absurd. Harris is doing his duty as a journalist to put that variety of scientific intuition down in print.

Related books:
- Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry - A Doctor's Revelations about a Profession in Crisis
- The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next

65 people found this helpful

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Pranali Patil

I wanted to write this book!

Reviewed in India on August 2, 2023

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Being in the field myself and facing personally the costs of irreproducibility during my Masters AND PhD thesis work, I went down the rabbit hole to find the reason and came across the whole reproducibility issue. It was very difficult to actually find all the resources and papers talking about the issue! I wanted to write a book collecting everything from 2020. I never came across this book while searching! Recently, after the scandal of stanford president resigning appeared on the New york times, I found this book recommendation in the comments of the article. This open science and reproducibility movement REALLY needs to do a better job of publicizing their concerns.

Jonas Lipski

Very informative

Reviewed in Germany on November 5, 2022

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This is a very informative book about bad scientific practice. Its written by a journalist, so it contains many stories and not as much explanation/theory. But the stories sure are significant and very informatively written, I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in the topic.

George Poirier

The Many Perils in Biomedical Research

Reviewed in Canada on June 20, 2017

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Based on the information presented in this book, the scientific research campaign to cure cancer and various other terrible diseases is not going as well as one would hope. The author explores the nature of this problem and in a fair amount of detail. Non-reproducible results of experiments published the scientific literature is a particular concern. One of the major reasons for this that the author has uncovered is sloppy laboratory habits brought on, in part, due to pressure to publish as soon as possible at the expense of careful laboratory work and proper data analysis. This attitude exists for several reasons, including advancing scientists’ reputations/careers as well as obtaining further funding for more projects. It’s felt that a large number of publications looks better than few even if these latter ones are of much better quality. The author also discusses ongoing efforts towards resolving this problem and has succeeded, I believe, in giving a well-balanced presentation.

I found the book to be well-written in a prose that is clear, serious, detailed, lively and engaging. I also found the information in this book to be rather disappointing, worrisome and at times heartbreaking as well as frightening. This is a book that should be of interest to everyone.

ALIEN

Analyse confuse et naïve des périls de la recherche médicale d'aujourd'hui

Reviewed in France on May 26, 2017

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L'ouvrage de Richard Harris part d'un constat indubitable sur la recherche médicale d'aujourd'hui, encore largement inconnu du grand public : non-reproductibilité de trop de résultats parus dans les revues savantes, ralentissement marquée de l'apparition de médicaments efficaces vraiment nouveaux. Son analyse pâtit du mélange entre les pressions de la << big science >>, qui exacerbe la compétition entre un nombre croissant de chercheurs à travers le monde, dans un environnement financier moins favorable qu'auparavant, et de véritables butées scientifiques, mal maîtrisées. Deux exemples, issues du livre : l'élevage des souris, principaux animaux de laboratoire, et la culture des cellules posent des problèmes redoutables, insoupçonnés il y a peu. Trop facile d'écrire un pamphlet journalistique à propos de la médecine car la vie humaine y est en jeu. Comprendre la pratique de la science actuelle, médicale ou non, est une exigence fondamentale, insuffisamment développée. Je crains que ce travail superficiel n'y aide guère. En français, << La science à bout de souffle ? >>, par Laurent Ségalat (Seuil, 2009), est très supérieur.

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草枕温泉老人Hotspring

生命医科学の研究の信頼性には問題がある

Reviewed in Japan on November 21, 2019

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著者は生命医科学分野の研究の論文の9割は再現性に問題があり、それには、お粗末な研究デザイン、ずさんなデータの統計処理、実験用マウスの不適切な使用等様々な要因があるとする。その結果、アメリカの膨大な研究予算は無駄に使われていることになり、生命医科学の進歩は停滞しているとする。その背景には、世間の目を引く研究を早く出して、多額の研究費を得て、研究実績を稼ぎたい研究者のゆがんだ研究インセンティブがある。
人間の健康にかかわる問題だけに、この本の指摘は重要だ。日本はアメリカより研究の要件が甘く、特に十分な臨床実験の証明のない薬剤等を、早期に試験的に認可しているようなところがあるので心配になった。重要な問題を指摘している良い本だと思う。

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