4 ms·

Not sure exactly how a smart person can choose to do something that's so obviously going to get him caught and ruin his career. Lying about something as highly

by swombat 13y ago

Not sure exactly how a smart person can choose to do something that's so obviously going to get him caught and ruin his career. Lying about something as highly visible as an AIDS vaccine seems just plain stupid, whatever the ethics of it may be...

DanBC 13y ago
Smart people do dumb or evil things all the time. There was a submission to HN a while ago about someone who went to jail for fraud. But to get to that point he needed a lot of other people to help him or to turn away. He didn't need any clever manipulation. He just asked them. And each of them complied, knowing that what they were doing was wrong.
dnautics 13y ago
perhaps he thought that there might be a kernel of truth there that, even if his first data set didn't work, could be turned into something real.
daemonk 13y ago
Reproducibility is a big problem in biology right now. He probably thought he could delay people finding out until he can produce good legitimate research that might distract attention away from the faked data. I was thinking, "please don't be Chinese" when I read the title. Fuck.
- D9u 13y ago
  I was under the impression that the name Dong-Pyou Han was of Korean origin?
  - icegreentea 13y ago
    Han is a valid Chinese and Korean last name. However, this researcher appears to be Chinese based on his previous publication history (he was affiliated with a university in Shanghai prior to coming to the states which is unlikely occurrence for a Korean)
    - thejay 13y ago
      Not to nitpick on the race here but Pyou is not a valid phonetic in any Chinese name.
    - rekcahswen 13y ago
      http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dong-Pyou+Han http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dong-Pyou+Han
    - w1ntermute 13y ago
      I think you've got it wrong: http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html He was previously affiliated with Yonsei University, located in Seoul.
- Crito 13y ago
  > "I was thinking, "please don't be Chinese" when I read the title. Fuck." Why, is this "a thing"? The closest thing I can think off the top of my head as another example is Hwang Woo-suk, but he was Korean. This wiki page doesn't seem to have many Chinese names: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_misconduct http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_misconduct
  - 001sky 13y ago
    google: asian pressure to succeed yeilds 7.660 million results Its a generic and terrible stereotype, but then again | data http://www.realclearscience.com/2013/09/30/china039s_black_market_for_scientific_fraud_255306.html http://www.realclearscience.com/2013/09/30/china039s_black_m... http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-judging-research-leading-academic-fraud-looks-good-paper http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-j... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07fraud.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07fraud.html?pa... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/02/china-academic-scandal http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/02/china-academi... Again, not any excuse for an overzealous association but the data are out there.
- discardorama 13y ago
  Looking at his publications, he seems to be Korean. You can breathe easy. ;-)
  - jaekwon 13y ago
    Ugh.
yk 13y ago
Perhaps he did not have a career to speak of. He was a assistant professor, so perhaps he needed something big to get tenure, or leave anyhow. Edit This is a comment about the state of the educational system, not an excuse for forging data.
gametheoretic 13y ago
Why is that obvious? We are all totally unaware of what percentage of the time that lie succeeds.
differentView 13y ago
Maybe he's not that smart. He's an assistant professor, and who knows how many times he had cheated or plagiarized to even get to that position.
- dhimes 13y ago
  This. And what about the honest guy whose career was trampled so this guy could get the professorship?

by swombat 13y ago

DanBC 13y ago

Smart people do dumb or evil things all the time. There was a submission to HN a while ago about someone who went to jail for fraud. But to get to that point he needed a lot of other people to help him or to turn away. He didn't need any clever manipulation. He just asked them. And each of them complied, knowing that what they were doing was wrong.

dnautics 13y ago

perhaps he thought that there might be a kernel of truth there that, even if his first data set didn't work, could be turned into something real.

daemonk 13y ago

Reproducibility is a big problem in biology right now. He probably thought he could delay people finding out until he can produce good legitimate research that might distract attention away from the faked data. I was thinking, "please don't be Chinese" when I read the title. Fuck.

D9u 13y ago
I was under the impression that the name Dong-Pyou Han was of Korean origin?
- icegreentea 13y ago
  Han is a valid Chinese and Korean last name. However, this researcher appears to be Chinese based on his previous publication history (he was affiliated with a university in Shanghai prior to coming to the states which is unlikely occurrence for a Korean)
  - thejay 13y ago
    Not to nitpick on the race here but Pyou is not a valid phonetic in any Chinese name.
  - rekcahswen 13y ago
    http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dong-Pyou+Han http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dong-Pyou+Han
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    I think you've got it wrong: http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html http://www.nature.com/emm/journal/v32/n1/abs/emm20002a.html He was previously affiliated with Yonsei University, located in Seoul.
Crito 13y ago
> "I was thinking, "please don't be Chinese" when I read the title. Fuck." Why, is this "a thing"? The closest thing I can think off the top of my head as another example is Hwang Woo-suk, but he was Korean. This wiki page doesn't seem to have many Chinese names: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_misconduct http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_misconduct
- 001sky 13y ago
  google: asian pressure to succeed yeilds 7.660 million results Its a generic and terrible stereotype, but then again | data http://www.realclearscience.com/2013/09/30/china039s_black_market_for_scientific_fraud_255306.html http://www.realclearscience.com/2013/09/30/china039s_black_m... http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-judging-research-leading-academic-fraud-looks-good-paper http://www.economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-j... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07fraud.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07fraud.html?pa... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/02/china-academic-scandal http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/02/china-academi... Again, not any excuse for an overzealous association but the data are out there.
discardorama 13y ago
Looking at his publications, he seems to be Korean. You can breathe easy. ;-)
- jaekwon 13y ago
  Ugh.

yk 13y ago

Perhaps he did not have a career to speak of. He was a assistant professor, so perhaps he needed something big to get tenure, or leave anyhow. Edit This is a comment about the state of the educational system, not an excuse for forging data.

gametheoretic 13y ago

Why is that obvious? We are all totally unaware of what percentage of the time that lie succeeds.

differentView 13y ago

Maybe he's not that smart. He's an assistant professor, and who knows how many times he had cheated or plagiarized to even get to that position.

dhimes 13y ago
This. And what about the honest guy whose career was trampled so this guy could get the professorship?