Reproducibility Crisis in the Sciences: The “Agitation”

The following article, previously published in the magazine El Gato y La Caja, presents and retracts a problem in the world of today's scientific laboratories. What about experiments? Why don't scientists get the same result twice? The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was born in 1886 and quickly became a classic to the point that, as with most classics, you don't need to have read it to know the story: a renowned scientist discovers a potion that turns him into a perverse and violent subject, dissociating his personality and changing his physical appearance. Between both personalities, there is a tragic battle that knew how to have many reversions in literature and cinema. In the last pages, Dr. Jekyll, with new ingredients, wants to repeat his successful formula. But he does not succeed, because the effect of the potion was due to an impurity in the old inputs, already consumed. This impurity is impossible to trace, which naturally prevents Dr. Jekyll from getting the same result again. Translation from Spanish by Maria Sandoval and Marie Brendle. The illustrations of the cover by Chica Estelar.