Presentations without context

Looking backwards, a whole bunch of studies which were undertaken may be seen as either astoundingly obvious or startlingly pointless. Why on earth, for example, would you want to trial the effects of dexamethasone in suspected preterm labour, or see if doxorubicin was a useful drug in treating sarcoma, in the 21st century? The answer can be either (1) it was a waste of research effort or (2) it is all about the context.

It is …