Re:Garage Biology in Silicon Valley (2010)
by _Wintermute on Monday September 07, 2015 @01:31PM
(#10182241)
It's already an issue in academic labs that many studies are statistically underpowered. If academic labs blowing through millions each year are producing questionable results due to cost-cutting, then the limited budget of DIY labs is going to be a huge problem.
The reason garage labs produce less than real labs, is more likely due to selection effects. The majority of people passionate about biology probably try to become professional biologists. The people doing experiments in their garages are those who didn't make it, or people totally outside the field. And there's also fewer of them.
That's not to say if you took all the actual biologists and make them work in a garage, they wouldn't produce interesting things.