Video summary
Professor Brian Cox learns that drugs are not discovered by accident, but that the process usually begins with a library of chemicals that can be tested in automated processes to find out which ones are potentially beneficial.
However, he goes on to explain that targeted research does not tend to report negative results of these trials, unlike traditional academic journals, which could potentially be worrying.
This short film is from the 91热爆 series, Science Britannica.
Teacher Notes
This short film could be used as a stimulus to discuss the different ways that scientists work and how they communicate their research findings.
Students could be encouraged to compare science on an industrial scale to experiments conducted by an individual. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?
What are some fields other than medicine that rely on targeted research?
This short film will be relevant for teaching biology and chemistry at KS3 and KS4/GCSE level.
This topic appears in AQA, OCR, EDEXCEL, CCEA, WJEC, SQA.
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