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32-year-old blogger’s research forces Harvard Medical School affiliate to retract 6 papers, correct another 31
fortune.com ^ | 1/29/2024 | CARLA K. JOHNSON

Posted on 01/31/2024 7:13:36 PM PST by bitt

Allegations of research fakery at a leading cancer center have turned a spotlight on scientific integrity and the amateur sleuths uncovering image manipulation in published research.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, announced Jan. 22 it’s requesting retractions and corrections of scientific papers after a British blogger flagged problems in early January.

The blogger, 32-year-old Sholto David, of Pontypridd, Wales, is a scientist-sleuth who detects cut-and-paste image manipulation in published scientific papers.

He’s not the only hobbyist poking through pixels. Other champions of scientific integrity are keeping researchers and science journals on their toes. They use special software, oversize computer monitors and their eagle eyes to find flipped, duplicated and stretched images, along with potential plagiarism.

A look at the situation at Dana-Farber and the sleuths hunting sloppy errors and outright fabrications:

WHAT HAPPENED AT DANA-FARBER? In a Jan. 2 blog post, Sholto David presented suspicious images from more than 30 published papers by four Dana-Farber scientists, including CEO Laurie Glimcher and COO William Hahn.

Many images appeared to have duplicated segments that would make the scientists’ results look stronger. The papers under scrutiny involve lab research on the workings of cells. One involved samples from bone marrow from human volunteers.

The blog post included problems spotted by David and others previously exposed by sleuths on PubPeer, a site that allows anonymous comments on scientific papers.

(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: danafarber; ethics; harvard; laurieglimcher; misconduct; plagiarism; pontypridd; research; sholtodavid; unitedkingdom; wales; williamhahn
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1 posted on 01/31/2024 7:13:36 PM PST by bitt
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To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

p


2 posted on 01/31/2024 7:13:52 PM PST by bitt (<img src=' 'width=30%>)
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To: bitt

Soon A.I. will out a lot of professional liars.


3 posted on 01/31/2024 7:14:36 PM PST by Newbomb Turk
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To: bitt

Paper Review by potential patients.


4 posted on 01/31/2024 7:15:50 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: bitt

The corruption goes deep. My guess is this barely scratches the surface.


5 posted on 01/31/2024 7:18:05 PM PST by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: bitt

He will be busy...I saw a study of “research” that said, I think, 80+% of research is faulty


6 posted on 01/31/2024 7:20:25 PM PST by goodnesswins ( We pretend to vote and they pretend to count the votes.)
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To: bitt

after a British blogger flagged problems in early January.


Everyone should have a hobby. Shining lights on cockroaches can be fun.


7 posted on 01/31/2024 7:20:59 PM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Newbomb Turk
Soon A.I. will out a lot of professional liars.

So everyone at Havard at around the year 2000.

8 posted on 01/31/2024 7:26:09 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: bitt

That’s a British Blogger worth his bling!
They should hire him. Oh, wait! They usually don’t even want to know if mistakes were made, and sometimes. they get really crabby and ungracious when such blunders are pointed out.


9 posted on 01/31/2024 7:26:28 PM PST by lee martell
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To: All

.....a plagi-snoop presented suspicious images from more than 30 published papers by four
Harvard-connected Dana-Farber scientists, including CEO Laurie Glimcher and COO William Hahn.

Many images appeared to have duplicated segments that would make the scientists’ results look stronger.....involves lab research on the workings of cells......and bone marrow from human volunteers.
.....


The plagi-snoop certainly has his work cut out for him.....


10 posted on 01/31/2024 7:26:37 PM PST by Liz (Matthew 11.28-30: Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give strength.)
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To: bitt

They shouldn’t accept any of those medical papers unless they have be replicated twice by separate groups.


11 posted on 01/31/2024 7:27:14 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (We used to be a Republic, we are now a Fascist Klepto-Thugocracy.)
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To: Salman
The corruption goes deep. My guess is this barely scratches the surface.

No doubt.

The scientific community and peer review has taken a real beating these last couple years what with the fraud being exposed in it.

It's about time. Scientists are not above corruption, no matter how pure someone thinks their intent is.

12 posted on 01/31/2024 7:47:00 PM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: bitt

Harvard’s losers ride the reputations of people who earned t respect based on merit.

The school is so creepy today.


13 posted on 01/31/2024 7:52:00 PM PST by GOPJ (Is Biden starting a war AFTER draining the petroleum reserves and giving our weapoins to Ukraine?)
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To: bitt

How many patients have been damaged by this “research”.


14 posted on 01/31/2024 7:58:41 PM PST by alternatives?
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To: goodnesswins

“ He will be busy...I saw a study of “research” that said, I think, 80+% of research is faulty”
******************************************************************

There is so much money riding on academic and scientific projects/studies (and follow-on studies) being successfully conducted that there is immense pressure to come up with “positive” results. And that is a shame because a study investigating a hypothesis that come up with results that disproves a hypothesis shoukd be considered a success.


15 posted on 01/31/2024 8:15:19 PM PST by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAX)
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To: Newbomb Turk

Very good point! Live by the AI, die by the AI!

I know academics have been cheating and falsifying data for decades, they didn’t get caught because it was too hard to detect - and (probably most importantly) - no one was looking.

No one was looking because the lookers would have been just as guilty.

Just like political polls...which don’t even bother with the smokescreen of “peer review” - they just print whatever their sponsors want to hear.


16 posted on 01/31/2024 9:11:52 PM PST by bigbob
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To: bitt

“The blogger, 32-year-old Sholto David, of Pontypridd, Wales, is a scientist-sleuth who detects cut-and-paste image manipulation . . .”

Hmmh - interesting - I’ve got a birth certificate from Hawaii I’d like to send him.


17 posted on 01/31/2024 9:19:20 PM PST by Stosh
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To: bitt

“...are keeping researchers and science journals on their toes...”

That’s one way of putting it.

Another way:

“...are revealing researchers and science journals as total hacks and utter frauds...”


18 posted on 01/31/2024 10:04:00 PM PST by one guy in new jersey
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To: Newbomb Turk

Or make us believe even more lies...


19 posted on 01/31/2024 10:34:44 PM PST by cherry
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To: bitt

So much for the crack quality of the so called experts.


20 posted on 02/01/2024 12:23:50 AM PST by rottweiller_inc (inter canem et lupum)
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