I recently did a guest post at Stephen Heard’s Scientist Sees Squirrel blog called The delicate dance of peer review. It calls for an extra level or two of kindness when reviewing others’ work.
I stand behind that post. I think it’s pretty solid. Still, compulsive honesty compels me to admit that a part of me relishes the sorts of acerbic takedowns that I argued against in that post.
About 20 years ago, I attended a job talk in which the speaker presented his doctoral dissertation research. I think the dissertation might have determined whether a certain plant’s limited geographic distribution was due to limitations of seed dispersal, limitations of growth conditions, or both. By artificially enhancing seed dispersal beyond the normal range, the speaker was able to get the seeds to grow somewhat beyond their usual range. Or something like that.
Not being an ecologist or plant biologist, I found the talk mildly interesting. The research seemed careful, but not exactly gripping in the manner of a great scientific mystery (which of course might not be a fair expectation to have of a poor grad student just trying to get their degree and move on).
While I don’t remember the exact nature of the research itself, I’ll never forget the way it was encapsulated by a colleague and friend. After the speaker had left the room, my friend summarized, “It seemed like he was just quantifying the obvious.”
It was devastatingly hilarious — all the more so because my friend is basically a decent, respectful person. It was also quite memorable, obviously. To this day, if I’m brainstorming about a possible research project, one of the questions I always ask myself is, “Could these data yield new insight, or would we just be quantifying the obvious?”
This story arguably has a happy ending for the seed-dispersing speaker. He went on to get hired and earn tenure at a liberal arts college. For the record, that college has just as good a reputation as the college where my friend and I were stationed.
Perhaps quantifying the obvious has more value than we realize.
My Track Record 
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