By Leonid Schneider, on research integrity, biomedical ethics and academic publishing
Henry Markram deployed his Blue Brain supercomputer to crack COVID-19, thanks to Open Access and Frontiers. He now announces to use the technology to “address so many other diseases, accelerate science, and help save the planet from climate change”
“I have worked at several universities in my career, and never have I encountered the degree of bullying, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination that I have here. The atmosphere is utterly toxic, and everyone is scared to say anything in case it is heard and reported to [David Argyle] or [Richard Mellanby]. It is like working with the East German Stasi.” – Dr Andrew Brown, deceased
Schneider Shorts of 26 November 2021 – Molecular Cell generously retracts 2 papers after almost 6 years of begging, Australian cancer researcher loses job over fudged results again, dirty old man in Marseille was faking chloroquine data all along, plus the secret bats from Laos, Frontiers in Eugenics and Racism, the joys of coffee and chocolate, academic nepotism, and: we found the most stupid paper ever.
Alina Chan’s book with Matt Ridley on the Origins of COVID-19 is finally out. It is a very informative read!
Aristidis Tsatsakis, Konstantinos Poulas, Ronald Kostoff, Michael Aschner, Demetrios Spandidos, Konstantinos Farsalinos: you will need a disinfecting shower once you read their papers.
Schneider Shorts 19.11.2021 – Alina Chan’s book is out, Irish Moss as COVID-19 crusher, long covid all in your head, Cassava affair exposes idiocy of stock market capitalism, featuring a short-fused bully editor and his antivax successor, Wiley defending upmarket research fraud, Cheshire taking on the Indian Ministry of Defence, with Frontiers in insectofascism, mental deficiencies of vegans, radioactive showers, and my best wishes to Spiderman in his alternative career as fantasy writer.
“We demand that you publicly apologize to our clients and retract all your statements within one week from today. Failure to do so will result in our taking an action in both public and private law, against you and McGill University.” – Moshe Szyf and Michael Meaney, via lawyer
A mysterious clinical trial in Israel is recruiting autistic children for blood draws. As the company’s founder admitted, the actual therapy on offer is extraction of bone marrow “stem cells” and their injection into patient’s spine. Smut Clyde investigates.
Schneider Shorts 12.11.2021: a retraction for Pierre Kory, avoided retractions for various fraudsters, Vojtech Adam negotiating with success, Cassava forges partnership with learned society against Bik, Raoult vs Bill Gates, why asphyxiation is good for you, TCM recipes, Pandora Papers and chemical pollution, and how to save the planet with synthetic nature.
“Long story short, we investigated our published papers and then retracted those with data integrity issues. That is it.” – Dr Heather Smith, Editor-in-Chief
For Better Science