There was a good article in the Scientist about scientific fraud earlier this year, too. I don't think any of the people mentioned in that article were redeemed by the quality of their falsified images, though. New technology in science has required a much more tech saavy review of images, in particular, to catch fraud.
Gabriel, you want to lead a discussion? Alicia On Friday, August 14, 2009, at 03:35PM, "Gabriel Prajitura" <[email protected]> wrote: > >Nature has a great tradition of publishing science fiction, although they are >not really happy about it. They were the main vehicle for the papers of Jan >Hendrik Schon, the greatest author of scientific fiction (some call it fraud) >ever. I just read Plastic Fantastic, the book about Schon, which is a book >about a third rate scientist who faked experiments for about 10 years, got a >job at Bell Labs, got NSF grants, coauthored papers with big names in physics >who believed him to the point where they got to recommend to Nobel prize >winner to change their theories because they do not agree with Schon's >experiments. > >In the late '70's or early '80's someone won a Pulitzer prize for journalism >for publishing interviews with a 12 years old drug addict. I am not sure about >the details because I read it in a communist newspaper who was known for >fabricating stories. Anyways, when she was exposed that the whole story was >fabricated Garcia Marquez defended her saying that, of course you should take >away her Pulitzer for journalism but give her the one for fiction instead. > >Sadly, nobody did something like that for Schon. Take away all his research >awards but give him a Nebula or a Hugo instead. > >Maybe an idea for one of the next meetings: fiction in science. Besides >Schon's case I know of another big one, also in physics. It is mentioned in >Leonard Mlodinow's book "Feynman's rainbow", someone from CalTech in early >nineties. >Eugenie Samuel Reich, the author of the book about Schon, mentions some cases >from medical sciences. > >Gabriel Prajitura > > > > >> > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
