For Scientists, Jackson Lab Can Be Loose With Numbers.

Officials at the Jackson Laboratory mouse factory were willing to work the numbers to satisfy Florida officials who passed on a deal with the Maine breeders. A March 16, 2011, story in the Sarasota Herald Tribune contains this troublesome nugget from negotiations between company and government officials:

In an e-mail obtained by the Herald-Tribune from Enterprise Florida, Jackson’s Hyde also suggested that the higher employment number would require two additional build-outs of the institute’s operations to handle the employment growth.

He also suggested Jackson might change its earlier assumption that it would generate two business spin-offs every three years to seven every eight years. That had the effect of boosting the number of estimated jobs the lab would spur.

It doesn’t sound like a scientific method–more like dodgy corporate forecasting to attract a wide-eyed investor.