---
title: "Reproducibility"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reproducibility"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:45:09.848006+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Noteworthy irreproducible results ==
Hideyo Noguchi became famous for correctly identifying the bacterial agent of syphilis, but also claimed that he could culture this agent in his laboratory. Nobody else has been able to produce this latter result.
In March 1989, University of Utah chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann reported the production of excess heat that could only be explained by a nuclear process ("cold fusion"). The report was astounding given the simplicity of the equipment: it was essentially an electrolysis cell containing heavy water and a palladium cathode which rapidly absorbed the deuterium produced during electrolysis. The news media reported on the experiments widely, and it was a front-page item on many newspapers around the world (see science by press conference). Over the next several months others tried to replicate the experiment, but were unsuccessful.
Nikola Tesla claimed as early as 1899 to have used a high frequency current to light gas-filled lamps from over 25 miles (40 km) away without using wires. In 1904 he built Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island to demonstrate means to send and receive power without connecting wires. The facility was never fully operational and was not completed due to economic problems, so no attempt to reproduce his first result was ever carried out.
Other examples where contrary evidence has refuted the original claim:

N-rays, a hypothesized form of radiation subsequently found to be illusory
Polywater, a hypothesized polymerized form of water found to be just water with common contaminations
Stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency, revealed to be the result of fraud
GFAJ-1, a bacterium that could purportedly incorporate arsenic into its DNA in place of phosphorus
MMR vaccine controversy — a study in The Lancet claiming the MMR vaccine caused autism was revealed to be fraudulent
Schön scandal — semiconductor "breakthroughs" revealed to be fraudulent
Power posing — a social psychology phenomenon that went viral after being the subject of a very popular TED talk, but was unable to be replicated in dozens of studies

== See also ==

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Timmer, John (October 2006). "Scientists on Science: Reproducibility". Ars Technica.
Saey, Tina Hesman (January 2015). "Is redoing scientific research the best way to find truth? During replication attempts, too many studies fail to pass muster". Science News.  "Science is not irrevocably broken, [epidemiologist John Ioannidis] asserts. It just needs some improvements. "Despite the fact that I've published papers with pretty depressive titles, I'm actually an optimist," Ioannidis says. "I find no other investment of a society that is better placed than science.""

== External links ==

Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines from the Center for Open Science
Guidelines for Evaluating and Expressing the Uncertainty of NIST Measurement Results of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Reproducible papers with artifacts by the CTuning foundation
ReproducibleResearch.net