Now the literature in my area is pretty controversial. (You can appreciate that, especially since Bergbottom at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute bombarded you with criticisms of your theories.) Different and actually contradictory results have been obtained for the same substance in the same organism, e. g. alkaline phosphatase in the frog liver cell (Monnenblick, ’55, Tripp, ’56, and Stone, ’57). To give an example, when I start a run for respiration effects using a Warburg I don’t know what results to expect. Whenever this has been the case, my results have been confusing … to say the least.
On nitrogen-mustard treated cells, in some instances the controls respired significantly more—even with a statistical analysis of variance—in some instances the experimentals respired significantly more; and in other cases the respiration for both was exactly the same—even closer than the expected deviations that should be found in any random population. One run, the blank run, containing no cells … and grease-free … consumed the greatest amount of oxygen. To cut this letter short, the same inconstancies apply to other trials that I have made. Whenever I didn’t know what to expect, and particularly where the literature was controversial, my results have been completely haywire.
Needless to say, I was not happy with this so I discussed it with other graduate students. They have all encountered the same thing! But most professors won’t admit this to be true and merely tell me that my technique is lousy. If anything, I am an overly careful worker. Why is it when I know what results are expected, I get comparable results even on the first trial?
Remember, I obtained the expected results when the literature wasn’t confused or when my sponsor—a most important man in my life—gave me a clue as to what kind of results to expect. Only then.
Now this is the heart of the matter… The obvious explanation is the lack of experience. But, and this is what haunts me … what if those so-called contradictory results are meaningful? What if they were executed with care—and they were—and are not the results of sloppiness or inexperience? What if a nerve can twitch?
Very respectfully yours,
Jonathan Wells
May 3, 1958
Dr. Robert Von Engen,
Editor, Journal of the National Academy of Sciences,
Constitution Avenue,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Dr. Von Engen: