[mattkrause]

Finding the actual info is not terribly difficult: Google Scholar and Pubmed, maybe with some of the arxivs.

The trick is interpreting it and putting it into context. A paper will report the results of one specific experiment, and it’s very rarely exactly what you want. Understanding how a result will generalize to other conditions is tricky, even for experts: there are tons of weird feedback loops, unusual dynamics, and other traps for the unwary (plus badly designed experiments and the occasional legit Type I error). For example, doubling the amount of a substance almost never doubles its effect, and in some cases, the effects aren’t even monotonic: ~75% alcohol, for example, is a much better disinfectant than 50 or 100%.

With time—-and lots of paper-reading, you do eventually develop a sense for what factors might matter and how you could check.