Recent Cases at UC Berkeley, Lab Raise Ethical Concerns
Science is supposed to be a search for truth, but when fraud is suspected, the impact on public trust is devastating.
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Accusations of scientific fraud plague UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, casting doubt on the processes used to verify discoveries.
Though scientists from all disciplines exhort the need for integrity, researchers in the biological and physical sciences differ in philosophical and structural principles when dealing with fraudulent allegations.
"Public science has no method of covering things up," says UC Berkeley physics professor Robert Jacobsen. "That's why you trust us--because when the answer's wrong, we find it."
Victor Ninov of Nuclear Science
at the new Berkeley Gas-Filled Separator (BGS).
Researchers cited the innovative design of the BGS
as the key to the success of the experiment.
In the physical sciences, researchers like Jacobsen maintain the integrity of research using a vigorous review process and easily reproduced research to catch fraud. Often institutional committees are used to investigate the accused.
Officials at Berkeley lab used such methods to investigate and fire scientist Victor Ninov for alleged data fabrication related to the erroneous discovery of elements 116 and 118.
When scientists failed to reproduce Ninov's findings, Berkeley lab scientists launched an internal investigation.
"I don't really think there's anything you can do to prevent (scientific fraud) and in the last analysis, it depends on the honesty and morality of the scientists," says UC Berkeley physics professor Eugene Commins. "It's too easy to be discovered."
The process of scientific validation is very different for many Berkeley biologists. In a discipline where single projects can last for a decade or more, cost millions of dollars and involve living subjects, investigative vigilance reaches beyond the duplication of results. "There's nothing I do that couldn't be repeated, but some things might take a couple of years," says David Raulet, a UC Berkeley professor of immunology. "If certain materials had to be made from scratch, it could prove difficult."
As a result of time limitations, National Institutes for Health-funded researchers who are accused of fraud are investigated in a government proceeding by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research integrity.
Proceedings that take place at the governmental level are an anathema to many physicists.
A lot of people think of the problem in terms of a governmental mode, but that's not how science works, Jacobsen says. "Science is based on what is or isn't true and political horse-trading isn't going to change that."
NIH-funded graduate students must complete an ethics course to instill scientific integrity.
Researchers across disciplines draw parallels between the recent acts of fraud committed among the nation's largest companies such as Enron and WorldCom and the fraud unveiled in the scientific community.
Scientists fear that any fraudulent data may garner mistrust among the public.
"If you don't believe that the basic process is valid, this feeds your belief," Jacobsen says. "The biggest damage done by fraud is in making it harder to have a conversation on how science works."
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