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KarishmaB GMATNinja

I could not understand why is option A wrong here.

We have to weaken the argument that secrecy would hinder scientific development.
Option A says that such biotech companies have in fact reached conclusion with scientific importance so in a way it says secrecy has not hindered the development.

Please let me know where am I going wrong.
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KarishmaB GMATNinja

I could not understand why is option A wrong here.

We have to weaken the argument that secrecy would hinder scientific development.
Option A says that such biotech companies have in fact reached conclusion with scientific importance so in a way it says secrecy has not hindered the development.

Please let me know where am I going wrong.

The argument says that biotech firms are likely to not share their conclusions.
The prediction was that this will slow the progress of bio science.

We need to talk about something that weakens this prediction.

Option (A) just tells us that some biotech firms have reached some important conclusions. We are not given whether they shared those or not. So it doesn't strengthen or weaken our conclusion. We don't know what they did after they reached those important conclusions. If they did not share then our prediction seems to be coming true. If they did share then no worries.
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Premise:
With emergence of Biotechnology companies, it was feared that it the companies would impose silence about the proprietary results on their in-house research and their academic consultants

Conclusion:
This limitation would slow the development of the biological science and engineering.

As this is a weaken question, we need to look for options which displays that Biotechnology companies are not going to maintain the silence on the proprietary results.

D) To enhance the companies' standing in the scientific community, the biotechnology companies encourage employees to publish their results, especially results that are important.
- Ah! Here comes the option which talks about companies making their data public by encouraging employees to publish their results - This looks like a possible choice, lets read the last answer choice too. D is the CORRECT ANSWER
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boil it down:
· A fear of some constraint
· Conclusion: the constraint would cause some problem

We need to weaken the prediction that the constraint will cause the problem

Gap:
· The constraint is actually a constraint or not?
· The fear is real or not?
· Maybe the problem will be avoided somehow

Which of the following, if true, would tend to weaken most seriously the prediction of scientific secrecy described above?

A. Biotechnological research funded by industry has reached some conclusions that are of major scientific importance – Irrelevant at best, strengthener at worst – says that research has reached some major conclusions & they may be kept secret - OUT

B. When the results of scientific research are kept secret, independent researchers are unable to build on those results- opposite – this option highlights that negatives of secret research – OUT

C. Since the research priorities of biotechnology companies are not the same as those of academic institutions, the financial support of research by such companies distorts the research agenda.- Irrelevant – we are not concerned with the financial distortion, we are concerned about the secrecy

D. To enhance the companies' standing in the scientific community, the biotechnology companies encourage employees to publish their results, especially results that are important – Correct – it says that we have a reason to believe that the research findings will not remain secret.


E. Biotechnology companies devote some of their research resources to problems that are of fundamental scientific importance and that are not expected to produce immediate practical applications – Irrelevant – we don’t care when research produces practical applications
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