Erroneous calculations

2016/01/25 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika
• Mikrobiologia
• Biologia
• Matematika
• Astronautika

More than one has been frustrated when he discovers that in our body not so many bacteria live (neither Koldotxu, Eider? ). But yes, that's right: scientists also make mistakes in calculations once and it seems that microbiologist Thomas Luckey is no exception. To him we owe the belief that we have 10 times more bacteria than cells.

This estimate was made by Luckey in 1972, but according to the recent Israeli and Canadian researchers, the number of bacteria was very exaggerated. The new research has shown that the proportion is not 10:1 but 1.3:1, that is, we have more bacteria than cells, not much more.

Walter Gilbert, Nobel Prize in Chemistry of 1980, also played from above in another calculation. He calculated the number of genes in our genome and released it with 100,000 genes. For years no one said more, but they suggested that the Human Genome Project could be half, and now they know they are about 30,000.

Confusions are due not only to numbers but also to units, as happened in 1999 with the Mars Climate Orbiter probe to NASA. The project had two laboratories, one of them with units of narrow measure and the other with an international system of measures. The result is that the probe hit Mars and was destroyed.

In any case, Santiago Ramón and Cajal said it is more serious than making an error wanting to justify it.

Published in the newspaper Berria.