Correction to predator-host-parasite model
Last winter, I was analyzing my experiments on parasite-mediated predation in juvenile Pacific salmon and was revisiting a model that we had published the previous year in Proceedings B. I hadn't looked at this model since...well...since it was published, so I had a chance to go through all the algebra with fresh eyes. To my horror, I discovered that there was an error in how we had specified the functional response term for parasite-mediated predation of hosts.
I will spare you the details of the correction (but if you're interested, you should read about it here). Although I was very frustrated with myself for letting this mistake slip through, I realize that scientists are humans too, and anyone who thinks that we are above making mistakes in our papers (or that the review process will catch and correct all of these mistakes) is fooling themselves. As scientists, we might not get everything right the first time, and we have a responsibility to gracefully admit and correct our mistakes so that science can move forward in the right direction.
Of all the traits which qualify a scientist for citizenship in the republic of science, I would put a sense of responsibility as a scientist at the very top. A scientist can be brilliant, imaginative, clever with his hands, profound, broad, narrow—but he is not much as a scientist unless he is responsible. The essence of scientific responsibility is the inner drive, the inner necessity to get to the bottom of things; to be discontented until one has done so; to express one's reservations fully and honestly; and to be prepared to admit error.
