Hello, All.
       My bachelors degree is in biology and chemistry.  I have helped to
teach children how to do projects for science fairs, and I have judged science
fairs.  One of the things that we constantly remind the children is that an
experiment can not *prove* anything.  It can only disprove.  Even if an experiment
appears to prove something, it really can't because the researcher may not
have had the perfect set of conditions (variables) or the perfect set of
subjects.  The one subject who could disprove the experiment's theory may not have
been included in the experiment.  Or perhaps the researcher picked the wrong
variable to hold constant.  You get the idea.
       I think this is where we run into trouble when we say that "research
proves...".  I am reminded of the research that supposedly shows that
progesterone-only birth control pills do not impact breastmilk supply.  Yet we all know
women who, either immediately or as time went by, had milk supply trouble
once they started on the mini-pill or got a shot of Depo-Provera.  Sometimes I
think what might happen is that so often we don't have access to the entire
journal article, but rather can only read the abstract.  The abstract is
necessarily very short and can't possibly contain all the data the several-page
research report does.  So where the tables and other data may show that one or two
mothers had trouble out of "n" subjects, statistically that is an insignificant
number.  So the abstract shortens that to "does not cause trouble."  But
believe me, if you are one of the mothers who did have trouble, it is not
insignificant to you!
       I think that misunderstanding that research cannot prove anything is
one of the reasons why "experience" and "evidence" do not always correspond.
       Dee

Dee Kassing, BS, MLS, IBCLC
Collinsville, Illinois, in central USA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html