Bell Labs fires Hendrik Schon for Data Falsification

Raiford writes "Bell Labs has fired physicist Hendrik Schon for falsifying scientific data. Schon was thought to be a likely candidate for the Nobel prize based on the promise his reported research findings had for the advancement of molecular scale computing. In a Reuters report the dismissal was described as the only conclusive case of scientific misconduct ever identified in the history of the prestigious laboratory."

Comments

Re:The system works?

[geek]

I think because that type of forgery has a huge impact on their bottom line. I mean they were spending millions on what this guys claimed, and would have spent millions more.

It's fairly big news. Fraud of this scale is reprehensible. Plus I'm sure they want to make sure he never works again.

Re:hmmm

[chill]

The "rest of the company" is Lucent, not AT&T or AT&T Wireless which would be the division you're bitching about.

Lucent was spun off in 1996, thus Bell Labs wasn't part of your incidents in 1998.

BTW -- There are claims of Verizon, Qwest and others doing exactly the same thing today. Sad.

more information

[karups2]

3 page executive summary 127 page Committee's Report (Appendix F lists the papers in question; Appendix H gives Schon's response)

Bulltish

[Macrobat]

Tis a shame to single out a man for damnation on the basis of one slip when damnation is the default case.

This was not a slip. This was a lie. Scientists do not, by default, distrust one another's ethics. Peer review is meant to weed out misunderstanding and overgeneralization, not fraud. That's not "damnation," that's just healthy skepticism.