I've always wondered about gel image fraud -- what's stopping fraudulent researchers from just running a dummy gel for each fake figure? If you just loaded some protein with a similar MW / migration / concentration as the one you're trying to spoof, the bands would look more or less indistinguishable. And because it's a real unique band (just with the wrong protein), you wouldn't be able to tell it's been faked using visual inspection.
Perhaps this is already happening, and we just don't know it... In this way I've always thought gel images were more susceptible to fraud vs. other commonly faked images (NMR / MS spectra etc, which are harder to spoof)
Gel electrophoresis data or Western/Southern/Northern blots are not hard to fake. Nobody seeing the images can tell what you put into each pocket of your gel. And for the blots nobody can tell which kind of antibody you used. It's still not totally effortless to fake as you have to find another protein with the right weight, this is not necessarily something you have just lying around.
I'd also suspect that fraud does not necessarily start at the beginning of the experiments, but might happen at a later stage when someone realizes their results didn't turn out as expected or wanted. At that point you already did the gels and it might be much more convenient to just do image manipulation.
Something like NMR data is certainly much more difficult to fake convincingly, especially if you'd have to provide the original raw datasets at publication (which unfortunately isn't really happening yet).
Shifting the topic from research misconduct to good laboratory practices, I don't really understand how someone would forget to take pictures of their gels often enough that they would feel it necessary to fake data. (I think you're recounting something you saw someone else do, so this isn't criticizing you.) The only reason to run the experiment to collect data. If there's no data in hand, why would they think the experiment was done? Also, they should be working from a written protocol or a short-form checklist so each item can be ticked off as it is completed. And they should record where they put their data and other research materials in their lab notebook, and copy any work (data or otherwise) to a file server or other redundant storage, before leaving for the day. So much has to go wrong to get to research misconduct and fraud from the starting point of a little forgetfulness.
I mean, I've seen people deliberately choose to discard their data and keep no notes, even when I offered to give them a flash drive with their data on it, so I understand that this sort of thing happens. It's still senseless.
Isn't this the plot for pretty much every movie about science research fraud? When Richard Kimble was chasing his one arm man, it led to the doctor using the same data to make the research look good. I know this is not the only example.
"Whats stopping?" nothing, and that is why it is happening constantly. A larger and larger portion of scientific literature is riddled with these fake studies. I've seen it myself and it is going to keep increasing as long as the number of papers published is the only way to get ahead.
I'm an undergrad studying biochem, and my professors have also made their exams open-notes but timed. There are more short free-response questions than previous years. Also, the questions are focused on synthesizing the material rather than recalling minutiae. I think it's a good compromise, especially since you can't rely on Ctrl+F when you have to reason beyond the material in your own words.
As an aside, I find it interesting how Harrison Bergeron is so commonly misinterpreted as a satire of the left. When one considers Vonnegut's personal beliefs and the strawman portrayal of communism in the story, it really should become clear that it is actually a critique of Cold War/anticommunist hysteria. A satire of anticommunist satire, if you will.
In context, it was written at a time when the ideological and intellectual opposition to communism hadn't been very well-articulated yet, and hadn't become "obvious" to onlookers.
It might be a little on-the-nose, but I think it is a sincere takedown of the authleft (and moreso: crab mentality). These views can and do come from within the left - like Orwell, most notably.
All that means is that there are many worse charities.
I tried to look into it one time and find things written by people who watched from up close. It made me physically ill long before I looked at any substantial number of them.
I think the usual formula is to "pay" the CEO 200 k and spending the rest on ever larger promotion cycles.
What is needed in the west is a huge tax on charities and other non-profits to be entirely used to monitor their activities. Then we need to write draconian laws forcing them to insure and guarantee delivery.
Any sign of failure should result in persecution and the entire staff replaced - since we have plenty of volunteers.
We need to raise the standards like that to the point where government can safely pump funds into the mechanism when a situation calls for it.
I don't want to be called, receive letters and fill out paper work. I have better things to do. I'd much rather spend 50 bucks in [extra] tax for aid than suffering 2 hours of promotion to fund promotion every year.
When is gates going to provide drinking water to the entire world? Never? Then lets put him in prison and salvage the fund.
> What is needed in the west is a huge tax on charities and other non-profits to be entirely used to monitor their activities.
Nah. Just remove charitable donations from being tax-exempts, and then it's no longer a problem for the government when charities don't deliver, but a private problem of their donors.
I get the sentiment, and it makes for good TV, but you could also drink a whole quart of urine without any ill effect and you can be sure I would decline that opportunity.
Lol, I posted the same thing at nearly the exact same time.. amusing how the mind converges on certain things when you think of "Gross things to drink".
Perhaps this is already happening, and we just don't know it... In this way I've always thought gel images were more susceptible to fraud vs. other commonly faked images (NMR / MS spectra etc, which are harder to spoof)