Members of the scientific community criticized this comment as showing Senator Harkin did not understand the basics of scientific inquiry, which tests hypotheses, but never intentionally attempts to "validate approaches".
Dele af den videnskabelige verden kritiserede denne kommentar som visende at senator Harkin ikke forstod helt basale principper i videnskabelige undersøgelser, der tester hypoteser, men aldrig bevidst prøver at "validerer tilgange".