SoylentNews

Stanford University President, Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, has resigned after a university investigation [archive.is] found that he had fostered an environment that led to “unusual frequency of manipulation of research data and/or substandard scientific practices” across labs at multiple institutions.

The review focused on five major papers for which he was listed as a principal author, finding evidence of manipulation of research data in four of them and a lack of scientific rigor in the fifth, a famous study that he said would “turn our current understanding of Alzheimer’s on its head.”

The Stanford investigation did not find that Dr. Tessier-Lavigne personally altered data or pasted pieces of experimental images together. Instead, it found that he had presided over a lab culture that “tended to reward the ‘winners’ (that is, postdocs who could generate favorable results) and marginalize or diminish the ‘losers’ (that is, postdocs who were unable or struggled to generate such data).”

A cynical Soylentil might see Dr. Tessier-Lavigne in much the same way as Al Capone who was only found guilty of tax evasion. Who benefited from falsification "across labs at multiple institutions"? It's well past time to put the scientists back in science and rethink the funding system that rewards the bullshitters.

Original Submission