Who's more likely to start digging prematurely: one guy with a metal-detector looking for an old nail, or a field full of people with metal-detectors searching for buried treasure?
In any area of science, there will be some things which are more popular than others - maybe a certain gene, a protein, or a part of the brain. It's only natural and proper that some things get of lot of attention if they seem to be scientifically important. But Thomas Pfeiffer and Robert Hoffmann warn in a PLoS One paper that popularity can lead to inaccuracy - Large-Scale Assessment of the Effect of Popularity on the Reliability of Research.
They note two reasons for this. Firstly, popular topics tend to attract interest and money. This means that scientists have much to gain by publishing "positive results" as this allows them to get in on the action -
Secondly, in fields ...
