Modeling Study
Modeling Study
[There are two columns.]
[The column on the left is a piece of paper labeled "Empirical Study". The paper consists of the sections "Abstract", "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", and "Discussion". Each section consists of several horizontal lines meant to represent blocks of text. All sections except "Abstract" have gray, dulled text, while "Abstract" has fully black text to separate it from the other sections. In the middle of the "Abstract" section, there is a large red rectangle. Inside this rectangle is the word "Problem" in large red letters.]
[The column on the right is a piece of paper labeled "Modeling Study". It consists of the same sections with the same highlighting, but the large red rectangle with the word "Problem" is in the "Methods" section instead of the "Abstract" section. Because of this, it is dulled to match the rest of the "Methods" section.]
[There is a curvy black arrow pointing from the red box in the paper on the left to the red box in the paper on the right.]
[Caption below the panel:] A mathematical model is a powerful tool for taking hard problems and moving them to the methods section.

In this comic, a humorous comparison is drawn between two common types of scientific studies: empirical research , where an experiment is designed to test a scientific theory, and mathematical modeling , where mathematical formulations are produced to predict how physical systems behave under given circumstances. In empirical studies, hard questions about the limitations of existing theory tend to be addressed in the abstract, which is the brief summary of the paper that is presented at the beginning of most scientific articles. In modeling studies, assumptions based on existing theory are built into the model, and any problems associated with these assumptions tend to be discussed in the methods section, which outlines the design of an experiment in the case of an empirical study, or how the model was designed and the reasoning behind the choices made in the case of a modeling study.  In the empirical study, the proverbial "big red problem box" is stated up-front where everyone who finds the paper will read it, while in the modeling study, it's buried in the middle of the paper, where it's less likely to be read.
The caption opens like a typical statement in favor of modeling studies, "A mathematical model is a powerful tool for taking hard problems," but while a researcher who works with models might go on to say "...and breaking them down," or "...and studying them in ways that would be impractical for empirical studies," Randall concludes that they can't actually make hard problems any easier.  His title text, "You've got questions, we've got assumptions," plays on the slogan of the now-defunct electronics chain Radio Shack of "You've got questions, we've got answers" by pointing out that any answers provided are built on assumptions by the modelers.  In other words, garbage in, garbage out .
Randall doesn't call this a "tip" , but it does fit in with his science tip in 2311: Confidence Interval , namely, that "If your model is bad enough, the confidence intervals will fall outside the printable area."  Much as that tip suggests that a model's results can be made to look more impressive by hiding the error bounds outside the printed area of a graph, this comic strip suggests that acknowledgments of problems can be moved to less-trafficked parts of the paper by switching from empirical to modeling studies.
[There are two columns.]
[The column on the left is a piece of paper labeled "Empirical Study". The paper consists of the sections "Abstract", "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", and "Discussion". Each section consists of several horizontal lines meant to represent blocks of text. All sections except "Abstract" have gray, dulled text, while "Abstract" has fully black text to separate it from the other sections. In the middle of the "Abstract" section, there is a large red rectangle. Inside this rectangle is the word "Problem" in large red letters.]
[The column on the right is a piece of paper labeled "Modeling Study". It consists of the same sections with the same highlighting, but the large red rectangle with the word "Problem" is in the "Methods" section instead of the "Abstract" section. Because of this, it is dulled to match the rest of the "Methods" section.]
[There is a curvy black arrow pointing from the red box in the paper on the left to the red box in the paper on the right.]
[Caption below the panel:] A mathematical model is a powerful tool for taking hard problems and moving them to the methods section.
