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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."
You get it right on the money in the sixth sense thing. Take, e.g., Wegener and plate tectonics. He was right on the large scheme but absolutely wrong in details which is why his work was ridiculed by his contemporaries. Only later the evidence started to crop up and the proper mechanism was discovered.
It is not a sin to come up with seemingly crackpot theories. In fact that's almost synonymous with ingenuity. What is a horrible, unforgivable crime is to tamper with data to fit it to model and not vice versa. To a scientist, real data is (or should be) holy and must be treated with due reverence.
Existence usually comes as a surprise (Idem)
I heard a story about a biological researcher who went to some lengths to forge his results. When confronted with the accusation he produced his raw data and even autoradiograms. It eventually came out that he had decided where he wanted his results, and had then used an iodine isotope to create the bands on his blot.
Due to the extreme competition that exists in most research these days, forged results are only going to become more and more common.
Like many physicists, I have spent a good chunk
of this morning reading the Beasley report on
this case. There is nothing about this guy or
his data that is not "troublesome", i.e. fake.
When your read that virtually every paper he
published is the result of scientific misconduct
it gets very hard to feel bad for the guy.
Instead I feel bad he is ruined at 32, not at 28.