Question

Stefan is conducting research on gene therapy. His primary source of information was the government website for the Human Genome Project, which was a thirteen-year project conducted by the US Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. Scientists from several different countries participated in the project.

The information gathered is
unreliable because it came from a website.
reliable because the website has an official name.
reliable because it came from a government website.
unreliable because the website includes the work from a different country.

Answer 1

The question is giving us the following scenario: "Stefan is conducting research on gene therapy. His primary source of information was the government website for the Human Genome Project, which was a thirteen-year project conducted by the US Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health. Scientists from several different countries participated in the project. The website of the Human Genome Project is a website of a publicly funded research institute, so it's similar to a scientific publication - it's very reliable. The correct answer is: The information gathered is reliable because it came from a government website.

Answer 2

The correct answer is he information gathered is reliable because it came from a government website.

When searching for information online we should always do a background check of the entity providing the information. In the case of scientific knowledge, the information published on the websites of reputable sources, like scientific institutes, governmental institutions and research facilities that provide full insight into their data, methodology and sources is the one we should trust. In this case, Stefan is obtaining data from a big database constructed by an international team of experts in genetics that has been revised and approved by the scientific community.