Friday, July 23, 2010

Isn't this Obvious??

Maybe because it's a Friday afternoon in late July that research like this counts are news, but I see this as something that even a first year undergrad (and many higher schoolers) know: "Sampling frequency affects the reproducibility of results and if not properly done, introduces sampling artifacts".

Somehow that is news and worth highlighting. C & E News is reporting on research in wastewater and sewage sampling. There's a bit of a growing trend in this area. Analytical techniques have now become sensitive enough to find all sorts of chemicals, drugs (both legal and illegal)... in the sewer pipes, and more and more papers are being published using this data.

Somehow a researcher in Australia was able to publish a paper (paid subscription) showing that sampling frequency matters since the sewers are a dynamic system. I know it sounds like I am picking on the researcher, but my vitriol is aimed at:

1) all the previous researchers that overlooked this simple fact making this new paper necessary,
2) all the reviewers of those papers that overlooked this simple fact making this new paper necessary, and
3) C & E News for thinking this is worth highlighting.

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