davidbau.com

Huang Woo-Suk

Science in the news: Korea shocked by faked stem cell research...

The whole controversy is a good example of the strength of the scientific method: people tried to replicate his work, and failed; then they tried to look closer at the original experiments, and saw problems; and then the truth came out in less than a year.

Perhaps the lesson is that scientists shouldn't be celebrities. "I still want to believe," say quoted people on the street in Korea. But science is about verification, not faith. Scientists should never have a "following."

The Bioethics.net blog has had great coverage of the unfolding Huang lab disaster for several months. They argue that the scandal shows how the U.S. should fund stem cell research, but I'm not sure I follow.

Posted by David at December 23, 2005 07:28 AM