Science and technology have enjoyed a profoundly productive symbiosis in the last hundred and fifty years or so.  One of the main driving forces of technological advancement in the last century has been the explosion of scientific discoveries and innovations.  That scientific advancement has likewise benefitted from scientific and communication and computational tools made possible by that scientific progress.  However, these advancements have made keeping true to the scientific method somewhat more difficult.  Of particular significance is the rise of computational science whereby theories are tested and datasets are studied to tease out subtle trends and information that might not be available to more brute-force analysis.  However, as anyone who has ever sent a Word document to a friend with a different version and seen the margins, formatting and layout messed up, has learned, reproducing anything from one computer to another is not a trivial task and when it comes to science, reproduction is central to the integrity of the findings. 

Ars Technica has a piece worth reading on this subject that goes into the ways, both technological and procedural that scientists are attempting to overcome these issues.

via Ars Technica

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