Question

Terrence claims that a new species of bacteria should be placed on the list of bacteria that cause infectious diseases. He ran his experiment several times in one day and got the same results. Ben and Frieda also ran his experiment multiple times themselves. They never got the same results that Terrence did.

What does this indicate about the claim?

It is invalid because it could not stand up to experimentation.
It is valid because only one person needs to validate it.
It is valid because he did the experiment multiple times.
It is invalid because bacteria are always changing

Answer 1

It is invalid because it could not stand up to experimentation.

Terrence’s repeated same results alone aren’t enough — independent replication is required. Since Ben and Frieda could not reproduce his results, the claim isn’t supported and likely reflects experimental error, bias, contamination, or some uncontrolled condition rather than a true finding.