Inductive inference: Key takeaways from the Lund Biomedicine ReproducibiliTea Journal Club

Special guest speaker Dmytro Orlov, Professor of Materials Science at Lund University, gave a captivating talk on inductive inference, a systematic method of scientific thinking that was presented in a 1964 paper.(1) This highly controversial concept (at the time and even today) posits that 3 steps—developing alternative hypotheses, devising experiments with alternative possible outcomes that exclude one or more of the hypotheses, and performing the experiments to generate a clean result—should be applied formally, explicitly, and iteratively to every problem in science.

Dmytro used an analogy from the article, likening the use of inductive inference to motor engines: whereas the average scientist’s erratic, informal methods resemble a gasoline engine that fires occasionally, inductive inference is one that fires in steady sequence, consistently allowing rigorous syllogism.

The meeting was peppered with a lively discussion on how Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner commonly implemented logical trees to drive their pioneering discoveries and whether science or engineering is the more “noble” pursuit. In the end, everyone agreed that today’s research planning could use inductive inference to improve research quality and rigor.

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References

1. Platt JR (1964). Strong inference: certain systematic methods of scientific thinking may produce much more rapid progress than others. Science. 146, 347-353.

   
   
   
   

Speaker and guest author

Dmytro Orlov, PhD, is Professor of Materials Science at Lund University and cofounder of LBM Sweden AB, which develops biodegradable metals for temporary orthopedic implants.

Editor

Sean Kim, PhD, is a medical writer at AdvanSci Research Solutions. He has been a medical writer since 2006, writing extensively on therapeutics for a wide range of areas.