How can biologists do a controlled experiment when even genetic clones aren't identical? How can they compare plants in two labs when those labs use different soil and different lighting? Sometimes these sorts of things don't matter, and sometimes they mean your experiment is worthless! How do you know which is which?? Is there any hope for biology?

Eric is a physicist who spent the last 25 years working with biologists. In this episode, he discusses some of his joys and frustrations, and tries to convince Sam that biology is much harder than physics (Sam remains skeptical).

If you want to read more about the "reproducibility crisis" in science, see the paper:

A Survey on Data Reproducibility in Cancer Research Provides Insights into Our Limited Ability to Translate Findings from the Laboratory to the Clinic. By Aaron Mobley, Suzanne K. Linder, Russell Braeuer, Lee M. Ellis, & Leonard Zwelling

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063221

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