Question

Who might be disadvantaged when scientific work is wrongly misattributed? Explain your answer using other examples.

Answer 1

When it comes to a scientific work, there are always methods and principles with hard evidence supported by experipental data to prove its effectiveness.

Whenever a scientific work is wrongly misattributed, the most affected group will be in life sciences and medical domain who might be disadvantaged. Search for new medicines and medical treatment for various unknown deseases need proper attribution followed by sequence of clinical tests in the laboratory and tracking extensive historical data collected over this period. Any misattribution during this process will have a drastic effect on the successful outcome of deploying new medicine to the public and this hindrance causes lot of delays and unforeseen circumstances to cure the needy patients.

Another example is the usage of nuclear technology which is applicable to warfare, energy and medicine. When these applications are wrongly misattibuted, there is a high risk of radiation exposure and affects the health of the public who are exposed to such radiation.