The New York Times has an editorial piece which sinks a few talons in to this very ugly subject. The cases cited range from the gruesomely familiar to the absolutely bizarre. Medical research “fabricated.” Researchers couldn’t find their own original data. Reasons for mistakes, and no reasons at all. And, of course, a bit of sponsorship for the frauds. Fracking research carried out by someone funded by an energy company, for example. Then there’s lazy supervision of research by senior scientists. Major scientific publications have all published retractions in recent times, including Nature, Science, and The Lancet.
It’s a charming picture of total failure. The white coats can’t be bothered getting out of their comas and checking their own work, or, apparently, anyone else’s. That’s not all, however. Journal reviewers of new work are “seldom paid”, according to the NYT. There’s an incentive for rigorous scrutiny. Anyone can walk away from a job where they’re not paid, or deemed unworthy of payment. Why expect decent work from people who aren’t paid for it? Or is this just another case of patronizing scientists?
There are a few basic principles at work here:
1. The assumption of superior knowledge – All other people are idiots.
2. The assumption of ignorance – All other people are idiots.
3. The culture of collegiate superiority – All other people are idiots.
4. The utter contempt for non-scientists – All other people are idiots.
In a time where any kind of information can be checked by anyone at any time, the assumption is that nobody has access to information? The days when you could get away with the four points above are long gone, and the frauds keep a-rollin’ out?
If you check out “science fraud” on Google News, you get pages and pages of the latest frauds. When you get to about page 10 of the search, you discover, with awe, no doubt, that monetary fraud among “scientists” is also fairly common, at least common enough to make a few headlines.
How surprising. These people are presumably caught by idiots? How unexpected.
The mad scientist of fiction is at least an interesting character. The mad scientist of reality is apparently a weakling, a fake, and a fool. Doesn’t have the guts to do any real science, has to lie to even pretend to be a scientist, and is so stupid as to think that it won’t get caught. Like all fraudsters, they leave a trail of proof of fraud behind them wherever they go, and are surprised to be caught.
Which leaves us with a little cultural conundrum: What to do with useless allegedly scientific bastards? These vermin also deprive real science of funding, lab time, field time, space and obstruct their sciences with meaningless crap. They wouldn’t make the cut as cartoon scientists, let alone real scientists.
What’s the scientific death penalty? The scrap heap. In this case, the crap heap. Time to start enforcing discredit. Fear of actual consequences will work where mere disapproval won’t.
You don’t have to believe in God to have the fear of God put in to you by annoyed colleagues and infuriated real scientists. Destroy these scum. Make it clear that the next stop is extinction.
One option for publishers — enforce the fear with fact. Create a permanent record of all “people” involved in scientific fraud. A permanent blacklist. An easy reference guide for those never to be funded. That’ll penetrate these thick heads where bullets might not.
