This is the final episode of Season 1 of Science in the Grey Zone in which we explore questions raised in July 2024 at the joint meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) - EASST-4S in Amsterdam. In this episode, we’ll talk about simple cases of error.

Some researchers say we need to strengthen or even change the current peer-review system — using platforms like PubPeer to catch errors after publication.

Others argue for stricter oversight of experiments, data, and reporting. Some believe we should tackle overproduction and rethink how researchers are evaluated. Others call for a “cultural change”—but what does that actually mean?

And what about science in industry? How do we ensure corrections there?

We’ll be hearing from Willem Halffman, Maarten Derksen, Bart Penders, Nicole Nelson, Sergio Sismondo, Nicolas Rasmussen, Maha Said and Melina Antonakaki.

Speakers (listed in order of appearance):

Willem Halffman

Senior lecturer in Science & Technology Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands and associate member of the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy (SKAPE) at Edinburgh University.

Maha Said

Postdoctoral researcher based in Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, cellular biologist. Implicated in the replication sub-project of the ERC Synergy Project NanoBubbles, which is the first formalized replication project in the nanobio-sciences;

Melina Antonakaki

Ph.D. candidate in STS at the Technical University of Munich, developing a dissertation project exploring how visions and applications of regenerative biomedicine obtain social credibility in different political cultures; research on the scientific controversy and replication experiments of the STAP cell phenomenon.

Sergio Sismondo

Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University, Canada, and editor of the journal Social Studies of Science

Nicole Nelson

Associate Professor in the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Maarten Derksen

Associate Professor of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen

Bart Penders

Associate Professor in ‘Biomedicine and Society’ at Maastricht University, Senior Fellowship at RWTH’s Käte Hamburger Kolleg ‘Cultures of Research’

Nicolas Rasmussen

Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales, Editor in Chief of the Journal of the History of Biology

Datasheet

• Narration: Masha Matalaev
• Plot: Mady Barbeitas
• Production: Guillermo Vargas Quisoboni - Chakalaka Medialab
• Recording and editing: Guillermo Vargas Quisoboni & Guillaume François
• Visual ID: Guillermo Vargas Quisoboni

This podcast has been financially supported by 'NanoBubbles: how, when and why does science fail to correct itself', a project that has received Synergy grant funding from the European Research Council (ERC), within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, grant agreement no. 951393.