I can come up with a few examples that seemed obvious that they wouldn’t work in retrospect, mostly having to do with gene insertion using A. tumefaciens, but none that I honestly predicted before I learned that they didn’t work. Generally, the biological research at my institution seemed to be pretty practical, if boring. On the other hand, I was an undergrad, so there may have been obvious mistakes I missed—that’s part of what I’d be interested in learning.
Oh, I really can’t tell you much about that:) In my field, it’s much more basic. Somehow, even though everyone knows that young ferns exist because adult ferns reproduce, there are very few studies that incorporate adult ferns into young ferns’ most crucial life choices (like, what to produce—sperm or eggs.) I have no idea why it is so beyond simple laboratory convenience. It is not even a mistake, it’s a complete orthogonality of study approaches.
I can come up with a few examples that seemed obvious that they wouldn’t work in retrospect, mostly having to do with gene insertion using A. tumefaciens, but none that I honestly predicted before I learned that they didn’t work. Generally, the biological research at my institution seemed to be pretty practical, if boring. On the other hand, I was an undergrad, so there may have been obvious mistakes I missed—that’s part of what I’d be interested in learning.
Oh, I really can’t tell you much about that:) In my field, it’s much more basic. Somehow, even though everyone knows that young ferns exist because adult ferns reproduce, there are very few studies that incorporate adult ferns into young ferns’ most crucial life choices (like, what to produce—sperm or eggs.) I have no idea why it is so beyond simple laboratory convenience. It is not even a mistake, it’s a complete orthogonality of study approaches.