Thursday, September 26, 2002
Scientific fraud found at Bell Labs
Star researcher fired for falsifying data
TRENTON, N.J. -- A series of extraordinary advances claimed by scientists at Bell Labs are based on fraudulent data, a committee investigating the matter reported yesterday.
The findings, in effect, dismiss as fiction results from more than a dozen papers that had been promoted as major breakthroughs in physics, including claims last fall that Bell Labs had created molecular-scale transistors.
Jan Hendrik Schon, a star researcher in electronics, was fired after the outside committee found he falsified experimental data.
The review committee concluded Schon, 32, made up or altered data at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001 -- the first case of scientific fraud in the 77-year history of the Nobel Prize-winning laboratory, Lucent Technologies said yesterday. Bell Labs is the research arm of Lucent, which makes telecommunications gear; the labs used to be part of AT&T.
The research involved work by Schon and other scientists in the fields of superconductivity, molecular electronics and molecular crystals, which could bring improvements to computers and telecommunications in a decade or more. The findings were published in several prominent scientific publications, including the journals Science, Nature and Applied Physics Letters.
The committee cleared about 20 other researchers from Bell Labs and other institutions who worked on the research or helped write reports on it.
"The evidence that manipulation and misrepresentation of data occurred is compelling," the committee said in a report made public yesterday. Schon "did this intentionally or recklessly and without the knowledge of any of his co-authors."
In a response appended to the report, Schon wrote that he disagreed with several of its findings, but "I have to admit that I made various mistakes in my scientific work, which I deeply regret."
Schon blamed some mistakes on the work's complexity or errors he did not notice before publication. But he said all the scientific publications he prepared were based on experimental observations.
A phone message left at Schon's New Jersey home yesterday was not immediately returned.
Malcolm Beasley, an applied physics professor who headed the committee, said yesterday that Schon's motive remained unclear.
Scientists began questioning the validity of the research because they could not reproduce the experiments.
In May, Bell Labs retained five prominent scientists and engineers to investigate. The committee's 125-page report, submitted to Bell Labs late Tuesday, concludes that Schon did not maintain proper laboratory records, and devices that might have been used to confirm his results were all either damaged or discarded.
Schon, a German native and a rising star in the field of nanoelectronics, or creating molecule-sized electronic components, cooperated with the investigators and continued his work at the lab until the firing.
1912: First Briton
In Piltdown, Sussex, archaeologist Charles Dawson unearths two ancient humanoid skulls and claims that 'Piltdown Man' proves humanity originated in the UK after all. It wasn't until 1953 that it was proven that 'The First Englishman' was just a dull, medieval skull, with the jaw of an Orangutan attached to it.
1926: Bad Frogs
Hailed as the new Darwin, the brilliant biologist Paul Kammerer sees his career come to an end when Nature magazine accused him of tinkering with pictures of evolving frogs. The accusation is still unproven, but Kammerer was so severely discredited that he put a bullet in his head.
1996: Shrink Copies Shrink
Scientific fraud makes headlines in Holland, when popular psychologist René Diekstra (Leiden University) is accused of plagiarism. Diekstra is said to have copied entire pages from other researchers % and even from himself. Oddly, Diekstra also copied autobiographical details from others. Diekstra is suspended and loses most of his freelance assignments.
1997: German Scam
Germany is shocked to learn that two prominent cancer researchers, Marion Brach and Friedhelm Herrmann, have been concocting research results for years. In perhaps the biggest scientific fraud scandal in Europe to date, the two researchers are accused of faking data in at least 12 publications.
2000: Caught In The Act
Japan's most respected archaeologist, Shinichi Fujimora, is caught on film while reburying ancient stone tools he had earlier uncovered. Fujimora is fired, and Japanese history books are suddenly outdated.
2002: No 118
California's prestigious Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory woefully admits that one of its scientists has fabricated the discovery of two new chemical elements: elements 118 and 116. The researcher, Victor Ninov, is fired. The embarrassing stain remains, however. How could a sole researcher fake the discovery of something so massively important as two new elements? (MK)