
Dispute at Harvard leads to a restraining order against a prominent scientist - georgecmu
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/how-dispute-harvard-led-grad-student-s-forced-mental-exam-and-extraordinary-restraining
======
apathy
This is awesome. The way that (often foreign, often on J1 or H1B or student
visa) students are treated in major labs is often horrible. If this destroys
Rubin's lab, so much the better. Maybe he can serve as a warning to other PIs.

~~~
brd529
I'm more saddened than anything. Rubin's lab is dedicated to studying Spinal
Muscular Atrophy - the leading cause of infant death in the USA. My cousin
died of SMA and it was absolutely devastating for my aunt and uncle. If
Rubin's lab is destroyed by this, even if justified, it is a setback for SMA
research. I wouldn't call it awesome.

~~~
apathy
You think that bogus work doesn't siphon funds away from good quality
research? What universe do you live in? With a 10% pay line, even most good
research won't get funded. For bogus research to get funded, better work MUST
go unfunded. Guaranteed that will lead to more dead kids and a longer wait for
effective treatments.

And if Rubin was falsifying data, then so much the better if it wipes him out.
Few things are more disgusting than preying on the horrible situation of kids
with rare diseases just to crank out research indirects and promotions, mostly
on the backs of slave-labor postdocs with no alternative employment in this
country.

So, to sum, if Rubin falsified the work, fuck him twice as hard as other
frauds for his mendacity.

If he did not, and this is all much ado over nothing, then I sincerely hope he
will be vindicated and I wish him the best.

~~~
brd529
I agree. I guess what I meant to say is that either way it's sad. If it turns
out he has been doing bogus research / falsifying the data then it's terrible
for all the reasons you stated. Good that someone blew the whistle, but really
sad. If it turns out he has been doing good research but this dispute means
that the lab can't continue to function it's also a setback for the lines of
research they were pursuing into SMA. I just, perhaps over-sensitively, took
issue with characterizing the situation as awesome.

~~~
apathy
Fair enough, SMA is certainly not awesome for anyone whose kid is dying from
it. I should be more measured in the words I choose. "It's a shame that a lab
run by a guy who may be an asshole slave driver could negatively impact the
perception of SMA research, but if he is in fact playing fast and loose with
the facts, it will be better in the long term for him to stop working on SMA,
or anything else"

------
quasse
"Often, a person accused of misconduct will try to “isolate, humiliate, and
terminate” the whistleblower, says Patrick Burns ... But he’s never seen a
case involving a forced mental exam."

Unfortunately this is certainly not the first time this exact tactic has been
used. Adiran Schoolcraft was held against his will in a psychiatric facility
for 6 days after exposing corruption in the NYPD.

[1] [https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/414/...](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Schoolcraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Schoolcraft)

------
supahfly_remix
FWIW, 30.5 m is 100 ft which explains the unusual number.

~~~
phaemon
That false precision really bugs me. It's _obviously_ not exactly 100 feet -
no-one is ever going to get a measuring tape and check it - so 30m is a much
_better_ unit conversion!

~~~
bostonpete
They should have just said something like "100 feet (about 30m)", since that's
what the actual court order is. I get that a science-oriented publication
would have a convention of converting to MKS units, but in this case I think
it was excessive.

~~~
Bartweiss
Broadly, I think it's inappropriate to convert when the specification is tied
to units like this.

For a wild hypothetical, imagine the definition of the foot was increased by
10%. The country would burn, of course, but this restraining order would
probably expand with the change. If you're measuring a fact about the world,
convert as you will. But if you're "creating" a fact like the court is, that
should probably be reported in the original terms.

~~~
manarth
The definition of "a foot" was only agreed relatively recently: it wasn't all
that long ago that countries differed on their definition. That difference in
measuring systems (an Amsterdam foot was 11 inches, a Swedish foot was 12
inches) was attributed as one of the causes of the sinking of the Vasa [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_\(ship\))

~~~
Bartweiss
I knew the standardization was new-ish, but that's an excellent story. Right
up there with building a bridge measured "above sea level", such that the two
sides didn't match when they met in the middle.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27509559](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27509559)

------
hprotagonist
this is a horrifyingly ugly mess up one side and down the other.

nobody comes out of this looking good.

~~~
aaron-lebo
I dunno, what did German do to warrant the way he was treated?

Showing up in the middle of the night and forcing him to a mental health
facility against his will? Harvard investigators taking his writings? People
believing he could be spiking their coffee with poison?

It just sounds bizarre and German seems to be the real victim.

~~~
linuxkerneldev
> It just sounds bizarre and German seems to be the real victim.

I have no idea since both stories seem plausible. That said, this portion
stood out to me:

" In January 2016, a postdoctoral researcher reported that German asked her to
perform a tedious task, which she believed was disrespectful, leading to a
dispute. German was “red in the face and shaking with rage,” she said in her
sworn statement. "

Reading the docket NO. 1681CV01640 shows: " The Lab Manager, LaLonde, who
would have seen German daily (until May 21, 2016), described plaintiff as "odd
sometimes in his behavior, but nothing requiring immediate action, no danger
to himself or anyone." " " how they should treat him better and how he
deserves things other people should not have. This behavior has lasted for a
while. "

That makes me question exactly who is the real victim. There doesn't seem to
be enough evidence to know for sure. I've seen both types of things. I've seen
advisors sabotage their pupils. I've seen pupils blame their advisors when
things didn't go their way.

I'm sure we've all heard how Robert Openheimer tried to poison his tutor at
Cambridge. Unrelated, but still worth mentioning is also a suspicious suicide
of a former lover of his.

Openheimer got out of trouble, despite the attempted murder because of his
parents influence at Cambridge. It is interesting that this article mentions
German was with his parents as well. That swayed me a bit against believing
that German was the real victim.

~~~
deong
You're right, both stories do seem plausible, and we're getting both sides
presented through a third party who might or might not have an editorial slant
as well. Still, here's the part I noticed more than anything:

"In the fall of 2015, he took a refresher course in the conduct of science,
which covered topics such as ethics and misconduct. The course reminded him
that, around June 2015, a member of Rubin’s lab had told him about the alleged
data fabrication in the Cell Stem Cell paper."

It "reminded him"? As in, someone told him his supervisor was falsifying data,
and that didn't warrant even taking notice until something had to jog your
memory? While the general circumstances -- student makes false allegations vs
supervisor maliciously treats student -- are both plausible, this one line, if
accurate in truth and accurately worded, makes me pretty skeptical.

~~~
manarth

      >> "In the fall of 2015, he took a refresher course in the conduct
      >> of science, which covered topics such as ethics and misconduct."
      
      > It "reminded him"?
    

I wonder what prompted him to take a refresher course in a subject covering
ethics and misconduct?

It suggests that he had misgivings, and took a refresher course to determine
whether his fears were justified, or whether this was a normal part of
academic life. Or perhaps he took the course to give himself a rationale for
raising the issue.

~~~
npiazza83
Strawmen are stuffed full of perhaps. It makes the best kindling.

------
iaw
Wow, this is an excellent example of unbiased journalism.

