I was at Bell Labs when the Jan Hendrik Schön scandal broke out. Before the scandal, many of us were convinced that he was headed for a Nobel. (The fellow acr

I was at Bell Labs when the Jan Hendrik Schön scandal broke out. Before the scandal, many of us were convinced that he was headed for a Nobel. (The fellow across the hall won a Nobel while I was there, so this was not an insane proposition.) After the scandal: First disbelief, then wanting to know the truth. After it was fairly well-established, it would have suited me to have him keel-hauled for two reasons: 1. Cheating in science makes most of us want to hurl, 2. Selfishly, I don't want anyone of that ilk anywhere near my organization. Compare that to banking, in which cheating behavior earns huge bonuses. (Witness the MBS meltdown of 2008.) /rant