Monday, November 14, 2005

Scientific fraud of Jan Hendrik Schon

Jan Hendrik Schon committed the first known case of academic fraud at Bell Labs. He used fraudulent data, and often outright repeated data. He was fired for it and later had his doctoral degree revoked.

Science and Genetics in the USSR

USSR used to suppress science that it didn't like as bourgeois science, and would promote science that originated from regular proletariat peasants. The USSR often pushed science founded on ideological and political grounds, as opposed to scientific grounds. In particular the USSR jailed and executed many geneticists on charges of wrecking, mostly on advice from the anti-geneticist scientist Trofim Lysenko. The USSR didn't like the idea of hereditary traits--they wanted to believe the we all start with a blank slate.

101 Kilometers

Released prisoners from USSR prisons and gulags often weren't allowed with 100 kilometers of any urban center, so towns often sprouted up at the 101 kilometer mark. "101 kilometer" is often used to represent exile.

Little Albert

Little Albert was a horribly unethical experiment where a researcher conditioned a small child to be extremely afraid of white rats, and weren't funded long enough to decondition him.

Fake co-authors and scientific misconduct

When perpetuating scientific misconduct, non-existant co-authors are often created.