Except that you can't: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39054778
Science is facing a "reproducibility crisis" where more than two-thirds of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist's experiments, research suggests
That's not what the parent comment is arguing. The parent comment points out that research is expensive and not available equally to all groups.
The status of mom and pop doesn't effect the outcome of their research. Mom and pop weighing R&D against making their mortgage that month usually means they don't invest much in research.
> And I sure as hell won't trust any mom and pop research about pharmacology.
Regardless of Mom and Pop store investments, the outcome of scientific experiments don't depend on who does the experiments.
It is not an ad hominem fallacy. I don't know how you twisted his meaning to come to that conclusion.
Not to mention supplies. I worked as a lab assistant for a dude studying the effects of zebra mussels in closed freshwater lake systems in Indiana (dams and whatnot, where the mussel would need to have been introduced to the lake). Microscopes capable of counting the young, ventilation hoods (for preservation chemicals), scales, and methods of disposing of biowaste from the traps for adults? Yeah, that's even more - and this dude had a pretty low budget. What he did have was the time to put into the research which is yet another thing that alludes folks. Some fields of study really needs better equipment than we were using - plus it has been 20 years since then.
It isn't that the low-budget stuff or the "mom and pop research" is less valid or not good enough. It is that even that level is cost-prohibitive.
Heck, we used xrays to fit shoes on people long after she died.[1] I'm sure part of that was humans being slow to regulate it, but still.
Knowing that x or y substance is dangerous brings a different perspective, I think. By the time I worked with formaldehyde, we knew we needed some precautions. I also think it is wise to consider age and mental capacity: IF someone isn't old enough to have full adult rights (including drinking, warring, and renting cars) they probably shouldn't be able to decide to not be careful. But then again, by the time one is educated to today's standards, they are old enough.
Because the comment also mentioned this
> And I sure as hell won't trust any mom and pop research about pharmacology.
The comment essentially means that peer reviewed scientific experimental results from mom & pop are untrustworthy over big companies.
The very fact of science is that you can take the same experiment and under the said assumptions; you can repeat the same experiment yourself and come to similar conclusions as the one done by the original scientists.
> I doubt that mom and pop have the cash to do research. And I sure as hell won't trust any mom and pop research about pharmacology.
AD Hominem fallacy - the status of someone has no relation to the outcome of a scientific experiment.