The Marc Hauser Case
Today, the Harvard Crimson reported the results of an investigation by the school into possible scientific misconduct by Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology who studies the cognitive function of primates. The data and conclusions of several papers published in respected journals had been brought into serious question. The judgment: Hauser is responsible for eight instances of misconduct in his lab, including the falsification of data. The dean of the faculty at Harvard has already “moved to fulfill [the school's] obligations to the funding agencies and scientific community and to impose appropriate sanctions.”
Hmmm….an investigation into scientific misconduct at an Ivy League university involving the possible fabrication of data and the retraction of multiple papers from respected journals in the field. It’s a good thing that we’ve never had anything like this happen in chemistry. But, if we did, I’m sure that the chemistry community and the public (i.e., the taxpayers who funded the work) could count on being informed of the results of the investigation, and if misconduct was adjudged to have taken place, that the responsible parties would be disciplined.
August 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 PM
I thought this was rather excellent:
“Hauser, the author of “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong” whose research focuses on the cognitive function of primates, came under public scrutiny last week after a three-year internal investigation found evidence of scientific misconduct.”
Of course, if you read the final chapter of the book, it mentions that doing wrong, just feels right and it probably is. Thanks nature.
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:52 PM
The cardinal sin of science has to be the fabrication/falsification of data. What’s amazing is that even though Harvard’s investigation has found Hauser responsible for such a transgression, it seems that the school isn’t planning to sack him. The dean’s letter to the faculty on Hauser said:
Am I missing something? Shouldn’t termination be an option, too? Is tenure a license to do anything you want?
September 4th, 2010 at 10:13 AM
This isn’t the only example of Harvard and Harvard alum fabricating data: just look at the outrage over a former Zhuang group member’s (Christine Payne of GA Tech) publication:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jp809956w
It was retracted in its entirety; how often does that happen! The PI blamed the grad student, took her name of the web site and pretended that she didn’t exist- Dalibor Sames-style.
September 18th, 2010 at 7:57 PM
In the Payne case, the issue is the number of groups and several companies that got involved trying to reproduce the results. We are talking about hundreds of people here.. and a lot of money went down the drain. While I can’t say for sure, I’m guessing that the ACS editors were drowning in complaints which is why the article was fully retracted. I am not aware if anyone has directly accused the PI of falsification, but it is certainly questionable what happened.
September 26th, 2010 at 9:54 AM
i know Kaspar Hauser
September 26th, 2010 at 10:35 AM
The boss of adhesives’ development of BMW (you remember ? Brooklyn, Manhattan, Washington ? do you ?) once explained to us that chemistry in its entirety is a sequence of three effects :
patience, patience, patience
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:06 PM
(iv) patterns of catalysts or colored precipitates can serve as deterrents to counterfeiting
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY Volume: 20 Issue: 24 Pages: 5117-5122