Francis Collins Quotes

I think the biggest problem in clinical trials is that they are underpowered. And that fundamentally, the studies are just too small.

The value and utility of any experiment are determined by the fitness of the material to the purpose for which it is used, and thus in the case before us it cannot be immaterial what plants are subjected to experiment and in what manner such experiment is conducted.

It is the weight, not numbers of experiments that is to be regarded.

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

I was not surprised by the results of the Horizon experiments, but I remain willing to observe and consider any and all other tests that are done under similarly precise conditions.

The best scientific way to discover if one factor influences another is to do a controlled experiment.

It is important to consider whether the sample size selected by the Environmental Genome Project will provide sufficient power to discover most alleles relevant to gene-environment interactions.

There is usually a long interval between important scientific discoveries and impact on human health.

Being insignificant statistically doesn't mean it's right or wrong. It just means you don't have enough data to show yes or no.

We should be cautious about embracing data before it is published in the academic press, and must always avoid treating correlation as causation.

A science only advances with certainty, when the plan of inquiry and the object of our researches have been clearly defined; otherwise a small number of truths are loosely laid hold of, without their connexion being perceived, and numerous errors, without being enabled to detect their fallacy.

Even one well-made observation will be enough in many cases, just as one well-constructed experiment often suffices for the establishment of a law.

It is a truism to say that a good experiment is precisely that which spares us the exertion of thinking: the better it is, the less we have to worry about its interpretation, about what it really means.

Research must be central to healthcare if healthcare is to improve.

I have never had an interest in opinion polls. They are merely an indicator, that's all.

Every time I think that political analysts and writers will finally recognize that most of them don't understand much about political polls, they prove me wrong. They don't know how to read them; they don't understand the importance of cross tabs within a given poll, and they don't know how to analyze them.

We do some experiments in humans, some in mice, and there are some questions that can only be answered in nonhuman primates. It's true that you can't immediately say that those experiments will translate into human health, but nevertheless, it is obvious that having an understanding of human memory is going to be important for human health.

I earned a Master's degree in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2009.

I know that a lot of people love to say that polls are wrong or don't matter, and from time to time they are - it depends on who they are polling.

I have never been a stats person.

If you're a social scientist worth your salt, you never do a univariate analysis.

Okay, are you really 'experimenting'? How do you know if you're really experimenting? You're working on it methodically and you're publishing the results! It's not an experiment if you don't publish the results in some verifiable and falsifiable form, okay?

If one in twenty does not seem high enough odds, we may, if we prefer it, draw the line at one in fifty (the 2 per cent. point), or one in a hundred (the 1 per cent. point). Personally, the writer prefers to set a low standard of significance at the 5 per cent. point, and ignore entirely all results which fail to reach this level. A scientific fact should be regarded as experimentally established only if a properly designed experiment rarely fails to give this level of significance.

Every cent that goes to research is changing the lives of patients and their families right now.

Scientific method: There's a madness in the method.