Scientific research! No, it isn't just a bunch of folks in lab coats shouting "eureka!" and then getting handed a Nobel Prize. Lots of scientific research gets done these days in the United States alone. This work is being done by a widely diverse (but maybe not diverse enough) group of people at universities, labs, companies, you name it. In fact, the average scientist likely spends more time writing than "doing" research. The process to go from research to publication is not well known by most of the public, so let's demystify it!
First off, let's get a few things straight
1. Accepted scientific research has been peer-reviewed. This means that scientists independent of the research have vetted and commented on the work and the paper that was written about the work. This is why publication in a peer-reviewed journal or book is the gold standard ... and why random people on the internet claiming grand scientific discoveries (like earthquake prediction) without submitting it to peer review should be handled extremely skeptically.
2. No person is an island. Very little modern scientific research is done by one person. Research is done by teams and collaborations because, in the end, it tends to produce better, more thorough results.
