Slashdot Mirror
Panel Confirms S. Korean Cloning Fraud
mmell writes "South Korean cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk created a stir when he claimed to have successfully cloned human stem cells, claims which were almost immediately viewed with skepticism in the scientific community. Now an article on the BBC's website chronicles the doctor's final fall from grace as nine scientists empanelled at Seoul University conclude that Doctor Hwang's sensational claims were in fact an elaborate fraud (although they have also confirmed that Doctor Hwang's prior claim to have cloned a dog appears to be valid)." Confirmation of the investigation begun last week.
The worst bit of the fraud, as I heard on the BBC this morning, is it lead to considerable investment in Cell Research in S. Korea because Hwang was not at the periphery, but at the forefront of the field. Now S. Korea will be relegated to backwater status in the field of Stem Cell and Cloning Research (which will in all likelihood severly diminish their chances for a spot in the 2008 Olympics Tailored Stem Cell competition.)
However, Don Asmussen of San Francisco Datebook notoriety has again nailed it and skewered bystanding bigwigs in Washington DC and Hollywood on his followthrough.
But will he try out for the 2008 Olympic Political/Social Commentary squad, that's the big question
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A panel? As if there were some doubt?
Hwang Woo-suk: I committed fraud.
Panel: *deliberates* No you didn't.
Mox
Quick Dr. Hwang, clone yourself and escape the country! oh wait...
Whomever said journalists are brilliant?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What I don't get is why he did this, or (if you believe his claims) why he was setup?
Ok, clearly there could be some incentive -- the amount of money, adulation, and so forth pouring into his office after the paper was published was stratospheric. But did he (or the conspirators) actually think the fraud wouldn't be found out? Eventually they would've had to make good on their claim of indvidualized stem cell lines, and they couldn't do that. The gig would've been up in another year at most -- hardly long enough to be worthwhile.
This entire debacle has set back stem cell research -- many labs stopped or slowed down on their own research after the announcement. Some tried to replicate the bogus research, or simply found money drying up because who wants to back the 2nd place finisher? And now that it's been shown to be a fraud, how difficult will it be to get donations now?
The only explanation I can think of is a conspiracy by anti stem cell research groups, and I don't buy that. The only people who could've pulled off the fraud were top scientists in the field, who have been doing similar research for years. And now they're all disgraced along with Hwang.
It just doesn't make sense to me.
Just as long as Cleopatra doesn't distract Abe Lincoln too much... JFK might get upset.
I Lost My Virginity While Waiting for BSD to Compile.
For whatever reason it seems that in some countries the level of dishonesty and corruption is higher. There might be a good reason for it such as poverty, authoritarian government, and so on. The reason I bring this is up is because as guilty as Hwang is he didn't act alone. Some of his collaborators knew about it, but in general I think the same stuff would be very likely to go on in South Korea, because of some specific socal or cultural factors. Somebody mentioned on the news how scientists in many Asian countries achieve this level of celebrity. As Americans we would not even understand this easily - young teenagers wanting to hang up posters of Bohr in their bedrooms instead of posters of Paris Hilton!? One one side this is admirable as it bring up people who want to learn for the sake of learning, on the other side it puts enourmous pressure on the scientist. It is also difficult when the goverment is very authoritarian and will provide funding but then will keep the gun to your head until you get some results. So the two forces - the temptation for fame and fortune coupled with pressure form the government that wants to show off to other countries will create this situation where individuals will cheat and fake their results.
I don't think that Hwang should not be held responsible -- I believe he will be punished severely for shaming the country -- but I think his case also says something about the whole South Korean culture. Not to be prejudicial but from now on anything that comes out of SK's academia will be taken with a "grain of salt."
High levels of courrption and dishonesty is why I came to this country from the former Soviet Union -- it was possible to live there and even to become very rich but only at the expense of lying, stealing, cheating and bribing. I could and did not want to function in such a society so I came to the U.S. As much as people complain about the government and society here, I think it is still the best one that exists as far as a collective sense of honesty and accountability goes.
I was listening to the radio this morning and they had a story on NPR about this fraud. They said it not only hurt the reputation of the S. Korean lab, but also when it was reported that they had 'cloned' a human embryo, funding dried up for other similar legitimate research labs (such as Massachusetts' Advanced Cell Technology) as well.
y Id=5147015
Story is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
Legitimate research lab: http://www.advancedcell.com/
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
How is that a logical fallacy? My conjecture was that Hwang was caught because he was at the forefront - he became the scapegoat. Then they created this "mock" board to determine if he faked the results after he _admitted_ that he faked the results. If you would have read carefully what I wrote you would have understood that I was not saying "OMG! Koreans are all bad! LOL!!!! WE RULE!!!". I was just saying that (1) I doubt Hwang is the only one that would be dishonest in his situation. I didn't condone what he did but I can see how someone would do what he did because of what would happend in SK academic community. And (2) There are probably other scientists that do or attempt to do the same but we just don't hear anything about.
Is extrapolating Hwang's actions with some knowlege about the academic culture in SK and in other counries really so "outrageous"? You are right that SK deserves a better analysis but I am not publishing an article in NY Times, I just made a subjective comment on Slashdot. So if I had another month, I would have looked at the known statistics of plagiarism and corruption and compared US and SK, but I just posted a comment with an idea I had.
Isn't extrapolationg behaviors what courts do all the time? If a person lies during investigation, then is it un-reasonable to believe that they have something to hide.
Or say you hear that in Russia you can bribe your way out of jails and traffic tickets and you personally know of 100 such cases but you only know of one such case in U.S. isn't it reasonable to say that Russia is more corrupt than U.S. ?
On the final note, have you ever lived under an oppressive government? I doubt it.. So your oppinion on comparing countries is more subjective than that of someone who has.