[gfdsgvbcd]

my wife spent a year trying to reproduce some data that her research depended on only to eventually find out that it was fraudulent. the original researcher even admitted this to their lab, and he retired and his lab was shut down. no retraction was ever published. my wifes lab tried to publish a paper showing that the original research was fraudulent and the journal was not willing to publish it. she has since left the field, and i have been pretty jaded on science and academia since then

[esafak]

What field?

[Zetice]

I never understand why folks who have bad individual experiences end up extrapolating that experience to represent an entire area (field, subject, industry etc.).

Or to put it another way, I understand the impulse, buy why not self reflect a bit to figure out if that impulse has merit (it doesn't)?

Surely the fact that, overall, we do make meaningful and real scientific progress over time (we may now have room temperature superconductors!) shows there is more value in the academic process than there is problem, though obviously the problems are substantial and create significant limitations.

[gfdsgvbcd]

most scientific research is completely useless, science done for the sake of science with no real practical application

[Zetice]

Maybe, but you certainly don't know that going in, and the value of the occasional profound discovery more than covers for the dead ends.