Comment by shevy-java
6 hours ago
It can be simplified to this question:
- Do C. elegans offspring show a modified behaviour unrelated to a changed genome sequence?
That is a fairly simple question. The answer to it should be simple too.
You always have to distill complicated papers that babble about things to a minimum statement.
By waving away the hard parts you’re missing why it’s not a simple question in the context of this paper (what I was writing about).
The behavioral test they used showed different results under different circumstances. Even variables like temperature might impact the behavior exhibited in the test.
> You always have to distill complicated papers that babble about things to a minimum statement.
Disagree. You always have to read the papers and understand the details.
> That is a fairly simple question. The answer to it should be simple too.
This hardly follows.
Agreed. Also, "simple isn't easy".
> That is a fairly simple question. The answer to it should be simple too.
"Is P equal to NP" is also a simple question.
The answer should be simple, too -- either yes or no. OP did not imply proving it would be simple.
I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to claim your 1 million dollars from the Clay Mathematics Institute by just answering yes or no.
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OP did imply that the paper contained the simple answer, though.
It’s easy to say that the truth is simple if you ignore everything about exploring whether or not a paper is an accurate representation of the truth.