3/18/2014

A scandal in scientific research

In the previous post, I have written about the disgraceful event regarding STAP stem cell.

This team of Riken has made a slipshod work which could not be called a research. The first author of the papers published in Nature must be responsible for it.

It seems very likely that Riken, at least some of the leading members of this lab., has tried to take advantage of this "research" publication. Riken was going to be one of the two labs in Japan, which the government would invest for the scientific development in our country. This publicity of the research, which a young female researcher has made "an epoch making ahievement in biology", could have been more than a desirable advertisement for Riken than anything. In the press conference, the personality of the researcher or the "feminine" outlook of the laboratory room has been too much stressed. The pink colored wall paper has turned out to be remodelling of the room just before the publicity.

It should be thoroughly investigated what has brought this scandal. It seems the leaders of Riken are trying to ascribe it to this researcher herself. Of course, she is responsible for that. However, the leaders should be blamed even more than her. I suspect there should be, as a backgound of this event, severe conflicts for the research fund among the research labs. It is often in short time that the researchers are required to give certain results from their research. These won't excuse this scandal at all. But it should be elucidated why it has occurred. Was there any structural defect in the research field? I am afraid japanese researchers will lose its prestige due to this scandal.

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