Science in the doghouse

Great strides in embryonic stem cell research have just been shown to be based on lies.

Not mistakes. Lies.

I don't know how long this link will be active, but here it is:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8515

As a scientist myself, I find this behaviour absolutely disgusting. Oh, I'll hear apologists say things like 'It's all because of funding pressures'- but there is no excuse at all for total fabrication of research data.

What if it had been missed? Twenty years from now, researchers would have struggled to make their therapies work, still referring back to that paper of false data. People would be dying, because those best equipped to save them don't know that all their work is based on false foundations.

Worse, it opens a serious doubt in all (sensible) scientist's minds.

Has one of these liars wriggled through the net? Am I basing my work on someone's fairy stories?

How many of us are pursuing entirely the wrong direction in our work because some filthy glory-seeker decided to skip the experimental stage and move straight to publication? Someone who wrote the conclusions first, then made up data to fit? How many scientific reports, used as the basis for whole areas of research, were simple fabrications?

This man's credibility is destroyed for good, and rightly so. He has brought shame on all of science, not just his own field. He has cast doubt on all scientific work, everywhere. His lies have cut away at the credibility of all scientists. He's not the first, and I'm afraid he will not be the last.

Why should anyone believe me when I report results now? Every scientist is going to suffer the stains of this particular tar-brush.

Science ostracises those who disagree with its dogmas. I've seen this happen. Before Science can criticise any idea, anywhere, it must put its own house in order.

It must be seen to do so.

I suggest a public flogging.