Scientific reports have increasingly linked the bacteria in your gut to health and maladies, often making exaggerated claims. Did you hear about the mice who were given fecal transplants from skinny humans and totally got skinny! Well, some of the more gut-busting results might not be as solid as they seem. Epidemiologist Bill Hanage offers five critical questions to ask when confronted by the latest microbiome research:
1) Can experiments detect differences that matter? (are they specific enough?)
2) Does the study show causation or just correlation?
3) What is the mechanism?
4) How much do experiments reflect reality?
5) Could anything else explain the results?
(disclaimer: Nature is owned by Macmillan Publishers Limited Company. )
UPDATE: Corrected Nature ownership.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday August 22 2014, @03:56PM
Thanks for pointing that out! The reference was in the original submission and we failed to detect the mistake. Story has been updated and should appear soon on the main page.
For those interested in more details on the ownership, According to Nature's Company information [nature.com] page:
That said, I'm off to study "How to Read a Story Submission Like an Editor" =)
Wit is intellect, dancing.