Schneider Shorts of 4 March 2022 – my Macchiarini reporting passed peer review, scientists in Fascist Russia sanctioned by German funder, St Carlos of Oviedo and fellow crooks wallow in forced apologies, trash science and misconduct slander from elite virologist, MDPI loves antivaxxery, Elsevier loves fossil fuels, Wiley loves papermills, and Smut Clyde loves mushrooms.
Table of Discontent
Schneider News
- A Letter to BMJ – finally, our investigation of Macchiarini’s lies published as peer-reviewed article
Russia / War on Ukraine
- DFG sanctions Russia – German research founder forbids all collaboration with scientists in Fascist Russia
Science Elites
- Lopez-Otin’s revenge – Spain’s patron saint of research fraud gets two apologies, plus fudged data by his admirer Valcarcel
- Andersen the Bully – Wuhan market truther charges Alina Chan with research misconduct
Scholarly Publishing
- MDPI Antivaxxers – COVID-19 vaccines turn you into a zombie!
- Evil Elsevier – Great business with Big Oil
- Wiley, a predatory publisher? – actually, even OMICS might have higher standards of ethics.
News in Tweets
Schneider News
A Letter to BMJ
A letter to editor regarding the Paolo Macchiarini trachea transplant affair has been published in The BMJ on 2 March 2022.
Leonid Schneider, Patricia Murray, Raphaël Lévy, Peter Wilmshurst, Time to retract Lancet paper on tissue engineered trachea transplants BMJ (2022) doi: 10.1136/bmj.o498
It starts with:
“We call for retraction of the 2008 Lancet article on “clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway” by Macchiarini and colleagues.1 The paper received international media coverage as the “world’s first tissue engineered organ transplant,” and one of the authors, Martin Birchall, told the BBC that “in 20 years’ time, virtually any transplant organ could be made in this way.”2 Reality did not match the hype because nearly all subsequent patients who received “tissue engineered airways” died.3 The Lancet was informed in May 2018 that the key findings of the article were false. Despite this, and subsequent demands for retraction of the paper by us and others, the Lancet has refused to retract, without providing any explanation.”
The authors of this letter are the Liverpool University professor of regenerative medicine Patricia Murray, her colleague (now in France) Raphaël Lévy, and the cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst, legendary whistleblower who once saved countless patient lives by taking on Big Pharma and Harvard elites, and even won in court when sued for libel. The first author is an internet troll who was repeatedly sentenced in Berlin court for uncovering undesired information about Macchiarini’s trachea transplants, the Italian surgeon himself served as key witness. Murray and Levy were harassed and threatened by a London elite law firm engaged by a trachea transplant company which collaborates with UCL.
Here is the list of failed scientists, research fraudsters, liars, crooks and homicidal quacks, doctors and professors, several still very well paid and very powerful even today:
Paolo Macchiarini, Philipp Jungebluth, Tetsuhiko Go, M Adelaide Asnaghi, Louisa E Rees, Tristan A Cogan, Amanda Dodson, Jaume Martorell, Silvia Bellini, Pier Paolo Parnigotto, Sally C Dickinson, Anthony P Hollander, Sara Mantero, Maria Teresa Conconi, Martin A Birchall, Clinical transplantation of a tissue-engineered airway The Lancet (2008) DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61598-6
Macchiarini himself is right now about to stand trial in Sweden’s criminal court for aggravated assault, which concerns his later trachea transplants at the Karolinska Institutet, killings which were made possible by that 2008 alleged success in The Lancet. For the background of this story of Murray’s and Wilmshurst’s year-long struggle to get the fraudulent Macchiarini et al 2008 paper in The Lancet retracted, I invite you to read this article:
The 2008 Lancet (and its 5 year follow-up, also in Lancet, Gonfiotti et al 2014), is about an experimental transplant with a decellulirised graft of a left bronchus Macchiarini performed in Barcelona in 2008. The patient, Claudia Castillo, is one of the rare survivors, almost everyone who received a trachea transplant in Macchiarini’s killing spree, died. Here is an account by one of his Spanish victims, who personally knows Claudia and who escaped a trachea transplant despite Macchiarini’s literal murder threats.
The insane irony: Paloma Cabeza, Claudio Castillo, and Macchiarini himself all live in Barcelona, the Italian surgeon has a huge villa there and a licence to practice surgery in Spain, Italy and Germany (he still proudly holds an adjunct professorship at MHH, Hannover Medical School).
So now our letter was finally published in The BMJ. Let’s see for how longer The Lancet and its editors Richard Horton and Sabine Kleinert will continue defending Macchiarini’s crimes. After all, there is money to be made: despite our combined efforts, Macchiarini’s airway transplant technology is still being pushed for clinical use, mostly by UCL and Videregen.
Russia / War on Ukraine
DFG sanctions Russia
I am deeply grateful to the German Research Foundation (DFG) for taking this step, and hope other research funders will follow. In a press release from 2 March 2022 (translated from German below), DFG announced to stop all kinds of scientific collaboration with researchers in Russia, all funding to Russia to be stopped immediately, no data and material exchange, and no conference visits either way.
“DFG draws consequences from Russian attack on Ukraine
Support for refugee and persecuted scientists / joint funding projects with Russia suspended with immediate effect
The Russian attack on Ukraine also has consequences for the funding activities of the largest research funding organization in Germany and for their scientific cooperation with partners in Russia.
With immediate effect, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is suspending all of its funded research projects between scientists from Germany and Russia. At the same time, funding applications for new German-Russian cooperation and continuation applications for ongoing projects will not be accepted until further notice. With these measures, the DFG is supporting the federal government’s consistent approach to the Russian aggression. At the same time, it is aware of the drastic effects of these measures and deeply regrets them for science.
In concrete terms, no data, samples, devices or other scientific material should be exchanged in the existing cooperation projects with immediate effect. Likewise, no joint events should be held. The financing of the Russian parts of joint projects will be stopped until further notice, the German project shares will continue to be financed.
In total, the DFG has funded more than 300 German-Russian research projects with a total volume of over 110 million euros in its various funding types and programs over the past three years.
For the time being, the DFG will not be accepting applications for new German-Russian funding projects or applications for continuation of existing bilateral projects. In the case of new and follow-up applications that have already been submitted, the assessments as well as the evaluations in the review boards and the decisions in the approval committees are suspended.
Researchers who have currently applied for a scholarship abroad for Ukraine or Russia can change their applications and specify other target countries. Scholarships that have already been approved should not be started. Ongoing grants may be converted to domestic grants or positions; here, too, there is the possibility of moving to another country.
In addition, the DFG offers support to researchers from Ukraine and Russia as part of its initiative for refugee researchers. The aim is to enable the refugees to continue their academic work with short-term integration into the German academic system. In this way, the DFG is also underscoring its solidarity with scientists from Ukraine who have had to leave their homeland as a result of the Russian attack. However, support is also available to Russian scientists who are forced to flee in the current situation.
At the end of last week, the DFG, together with the other members of the Alliance of Science Organizations in Germany, had condemned the Russian attack as violating international law and expressed their solidarity with their scientific partners.
Here is DFG’s earlier press statement of condemnation.
If you think it’s wrong to punish Russian scientists for their fascist country’s war crimes and genocide – I strongly disagree. Science is always political. Also: mobility is what generally professionally expected from academics. Scientists in Fascist Russia can just leave their murderous state. Too cumbersome, they say? Think of what their Ukrainian peers and their families are going through.
Слава Україні! Героям слава!
Science Elites
Lopez-Otin’ revenge
Remember the Spanish research cheater Carlos Lopez-Otin? My readers’ sleuthing and my reporting brought down this former titan of Spanish cancer and ageing research. 9 of his papers were retracted for fraud, more manipulations in other papers were found, Lopez-Otin even lost the Nature mentoring award.
As his entire body of work, stretching for several decades, was questioned, Lopez-Otin destroyed his entire transgenic mouse colony on the pretence of a viral infection, and then temporally fled to hide with his Paris friend and fellow research cheater, Guido Kroemer.
At all times, Spanish media was on Lopez-Otin’s side, a huge support campaign among his peers was deployed to bully the international community, eventually the mouse murderer triumphantly returned to his University of Oviedo.
Now, another victory for Spain’s martyr saint. Two science bloggers were made to apologise, in public. Probably inspired by the public confessions made under threats and torture in fascist Russia and fascist Belarus.
But of course the two Spanish bloggers were not abducted and tortured, they and their family members not threatened with death, Spain is a civilised country after all. I can only explain this with a possible lawsuits Lopez-Otin brought against the bloggers (and probably many other people in Spain). In any case, Spanish media is celebrating, one local newspaper reports:
“The tortuous road that Carlos López-Otín , one of the most prestigious researchers at the University of Oviedo , has suffered in recent years , is beginning to see the light. After the academy called several professors to testify last November for an alleged case of harassment towards him and his environment , this week he has received public apologies from two scientists and science popularisers for having questioned his figure during the controversy that afflicted when he had to retract several articles published in the American Journal of Biological Chemistry after duplicate images and reused experiments were detected.
In his blog, The Science of the Francis Mule , Francis r. Villaroto acknowledges that he regrets having published very critical content at the time and points out that «being a question that refers to a person, at the time I should have contacted him to clarify the details; I should never have trusted the information that was published about his case in different media». The researcher points out that he had a personal conversation with Otín in which he clarified many of the points of the controversy that followed the withdrawal of the articles and «he presented me with a series of reasons, all of a confidential nature, which in his opinion were behind of the withdrawal of its articles; These reasons are not of a scientific nature and they can be qualified as scientific harassment . I don’t like that things like that happen in magazines like JBC or NCB; but I dislike much more that my piece was used as an asset in the subsequent harassment of López-Otín. Especially when beyond the withdrawal of the articles, the intra-history of the case of harassment of López-Otín is very tragic; one day it will have to be told ».
In similar terms, and in his publication, Ciencia Mundana , Alfredo Caro Maldonado , points out that “I had let myself be swept away by the wave without reflecting much on the consequences that my words could have or their potential virality” and regrets having written his initial article without having spoken to Otín and roughly and in a hurry.”
This is the evidence of the “scientific harassment“, I presume:
Here are the two grovelling blogs, by Villaroto and by Caro Maldonado. Guys, I also faced lawsuits and court trials, much, much worse than you two pathetic wusses, I also deleted some articles, but I never agreed to apologise in public and there is no law which can force you to do that. Aren’t you ashamed to look at yourself in the mirror? Lopez-Otin a victim of harassment, really? Get lost.
You want to know what harassment is, you two chickenshits? Here, another local newspaper:
“The University of Oviedo has confirmed to Nortes that an “alleged case of harassment of the figure of Carlos López Otín and his entourage” is in the process of being investigated, although it has not provided further details in this regard. This is an internal procedure that is initiated after the opening of a file on one or more members of the academic institution if it is suspected that they may have committed any conduct punishable by the university. From what Nortes has learned, several university professors are testifying in this first phase of the process.”
These scientists are apparently charged with a conspiracy against Lopez-Otin, who seems to also accuse them of smuggling a virus into his mouse facility:
““One day they tell us that there is a virus infection in the animal facility, created and built by us, and the only way to stop it is to kill all the mice. The next day we were left with nothing” , declared Otín in 2019 to El Confidencial .
He himself has said on other occasions that it was “a boycott” whose leaders were “two or four individuals” and that “it could not have been something casual.” He has also denounced having been the victim of a “workplace harassment” campaign that became “unbearable”.”
Spanish elites celebrate their victory and their hero. Another local newspaper writes:
“I feel very satisfied and I am pleased that some of the mistakes made with Carlos López-Otín , who was subjected to an undeserved and unfair campaign of disrepute, are recognized.” This is how the rector of the University of Oviedo, Ignacio Villaverde , spoke yesterday, to questions from this newspaper, in reference to the two scientific disseminators who have just publicly expressed their apologies to López-Otín , professor of Molecular Biology at the University Oviedo, for the criticism they dedicated to it in 2019. […]
The public statements of Maldonado and Villatoro, authors of two blogs, have also been favorably assessed by Juan Valcárcel, a scientist at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. In 2018, Valcárcel voluntarily assumed the search for support for López-Otín among a large group of Spanish scientists, and some foreigners, who sent a letter to the editors of the JBC magazine in which they defended that a series of articles of the group of Otín were corrected, but not withdrawn, considering that “the errors detected do not affect any essential result”.
According to Juan Valcárcel, the apologies released now “honor these researchers and popularizers, who thus do an important service to the scientific community and its perception by society.”
Valcarcel is the dude who also whitewashed the Barcelona zombie scientist Maria Pia Cosma and of course he also published manipulated data in his own papers.
Here for example, are some stealthily and irregularly spliced gels which raises suspicions how reliable this entire study from Valcarcel’s lab is:
Another spliced gel, the gel background pattern suggests the two halves were obtained with different exposure, making the figure more than suspicious:
Another such stealthy splice:
Patrik Förch , Livia Merendino , Concepción Martínez , Juan Valcárcel U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle (snRNP) auxiliary factor of 65 kDa, U2AF65, can promote U1 snRNP recruitment to 5′ splice sites Biochemical Journal (2003) doi: 10.1042/bj20021202
A completely fake gel, whoever did that is a research fraudster:
Feel free to check more Varcarcel papers, because this bigwig professor doesn’t know how to even spell “ethics”.
But whatever Spanish science elites do to save their St Carlos of Oviedo – all these misconduct trials against his peer critics, all these lawsuits, all these public apologies, all this faecal effluence of celebratory media reporting: outside of Spain, everyone knows Lopez-Otin is a toxic cheater who forged data over decades and when caught, killed 5000 mice, most obviously to destroy evidence. Nobody half-way honest will touch your sleazy hero with a barge pole, this is exactly why he is still harassing his critics. All Spanish scientists supporting him are likely research fraudsters themselves, every single one of the signatories is suspect, and this is exactly why they must defend Lopez-Otin’s fraud, or face scrutiny themselves.
My message to Lopez-Otin, Villaverde, Valcarcel et al: continue quacking in your toxic swamp and sniffing each other’s farts. You might have bullied two Spanish bloggers into a grovelling apology, but the rest of us sends you a two-fingered salute. Go scare your grandmothers, you failed scientists.
Andersen the Bully
Speaking of bullies. You all read the news headlines: the lab leak theory of COVID-19 proven wrong once and for all. Science has spoken: the pandemic started at the Wuhan wet market, everyone who still discusses the lab leak theory is worse than Trump.
Here is the preprint:
Michael Worobey; Joshua I. Levy; Lorena M. Malpica Serrano; Alexander Crits-Christoph; Jonathan E. Pekar; Stephen A. Goldstein; Angela L. Rasmussen; Moritz U. G. Kraemer; Chris Newman; Marion P. G. Koopmans; Marc A. Suchard; Joel O. Wertheim; Philippe Lemey; David L. Robertson; Robert F. Garry; Edward C. Holmes; Andrew Rambaut; Kristian G. Andersen The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence Zenodo (2022). doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6299116
It states authoritatively:
“Geographical clustering of the earliest known COVID-19 cases and the proximity of positive environmental samples to live-animal vendors suggest that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the site of origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
As a reminder, the preprint’s last author is the the Scripps virology professor Kristian Andersen, who has been always one of the fiercest public critics of the lab leak theory, ad hominem attacks on its proponents like the MIT postdoc Alina Chan gratuitously included. You will see some more of his bullying in a moment.
Andersen and his preprint co-authors Rambault, Holmes and Garry warned already in March 2020 a Nature paper Andersen et al 2020 against engaging in a lab leak debate:
“It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. […] Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer. We also discuss whether selection during passage could have given rise to SARS-CoV-2.“
Other co-authors of the new Zenodo preprint are Angela Rasmussen who made it her personal duty to viciously insult every lab leak proponent as an anti-Chinese racist and worse, and Marion Koopmans, who was a member of Peter Daszak led WHO-China travelling circus which declared frozen fish from Europe as a possible COVID-19 source. The first author Michael Worobey once joined others in Science calling for the lab leak theory to be investigated, but then he figured out which side his bread is buttered and became a Wuhan wet market truther.
Basically, this preprint is the product of the combined intelligence of the biggest geniuses of virology worldwide. It cannot be more authoritative, more scientifically unassailable. Right?
Yet these elite professors don’t understand basic maths. Or rather they do, they just prefer to fudge data, and to use their status and authority to silence any discussion. But Alina is not afraid, she tweeted:
“The figure currently being featured in the @nytimes only shows the locational distribution of the number of positive samples. However, even elementary school children should know to ask for the denominator. We know that sampling was not even across the market.
I hope it makes sense that if you sample one stall 100 times, you shouldn’t be shocked to find more positives there compared to another stall that you only sampled 10 times.
I’m a bit surprised that this basic principle failed to be grasped by the eminent scientists on the authorship of the preprint. One can only hope that peer reviewers at top journals will catch this.
If a high school or undergraduate researcher had produced this figure for me, I would’ve asked them immediately to go back and remake it after normalizing for the number of samples taken per stall.
And if the researcher told me that they don’t know how many samples were taken per stall, then I would tell them that they cannot make a figure like this. It would be ultimately misleading and unscientific to present incomplete data.
Indeed, a student doing this kind of analysis would be failed. But these scientific elites are allowed to do the things they fail their students for, and they are celebrated as the heroes by all media worldwide, heroes who found the REAL origin of COVID-19. This garbage pseudoscience is apparently even more important that Russia’s war on Ukraine, as Alina noticed.
Now if you are disgusted by our scholarly elites, I have the promised cherry on the top. Alina alerted in a Tweet the editors of Science of the preprint’s shortcomings, well aware that it was about to pass the peer review either there or at Nature with flying colours.
How do you think did Andersen react? He tweeted:
“Trying to interfere w. scientific peer-review because you disagree with conclusions is scientific misconduct – in this case, from somebody with a clear COI.“
Well, if someone has a clear COI, it’s Andersen himself. Also otherwise, he reacted as a typical academic bully. You see, there is a time-honed tradition in academia that whenever someone weaker that you dares to criticise your science, you immediately report them for research misconduct (no need to search, see Lopez-Otin’s case above).
You can safely assume that Anderson not just tweeted his outrageous accusation, but he also must have contacted Chan’s employer, the Broad Institute. They all do this, expecting their critics to be sacked or at least severely punished. This is so boringly common in academia, go try for yourself, criticise a bigwig’s paper, see how swiftly you’ll find yourself facing a research misconduct committee and a sack. No mercy with whistleblowers.
Andersen’s and Rasmussen’s bullying of Alina Chan on Twitter are legendary. And still, she is not afraid. But now we also know what failed scientists these elites really are.
Scholarly Publishing
MDPI antivaxxers
Speaking of academic bullies, look what insane antivaxxer trash Didier Raoult is endorsing:
This is the paper from the Lund University in Sweden, published unsurprisingly in MDPI:
Markus Aldén, Francisko Olofsson Falla, Daowei Yang, Mohammad Barghouth, Cheng Luan, Magnus Rasmussen, and Yang De Marinis. Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line Current Issues in Molecular Biology (2022) doi: 10.3390/cimb44030073
It claims to prove BionTech COVID-19 vaccine integrates into your DNA, permanently genetically transforming ALL organs, including ovaries and testes, and is likely to be passed on to foetus during pregnancy:
“Preclinical studies of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, showed reversible hepatic effects in animals that received the BNT162b2 injection. Furthermore, a recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the genome of human cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of BNT162b2 on the human liver cell line Huh7 in vitro. […] Our results indicate a fast up-take of BNT162b2 into human liver cell line Huh7, leading to changes in LINE-1 expression and distribution. We also show that BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA in as fast as 6 h upon BNT162b2 exposure.
Basically, you become a COVID-19 zombie. The referenced article is to a long debunked study by Rudolph Jaenisch which never passed proper peer review:
Grand claims require grand evidence, this is why this MDPI study passed peer reviewed is just one day: “Received: 18 January 2022 / Revised: 19 February 2022 / Accepted: 23 February 2022“.
I do understand that MDPI is on a race to the bottom, ethics-wise.
Evil Elsevier
Elsevier really is trying everything to be recognised as the most evil scientific publisher of all.
Guardian reports:
“Elsevier, a Dutch company behind many renowned peer-reviewed scientific journals, including the Lancet and Global Environmental Change, is also one of the top publishers of books aimed at expanding fossil fuel production.
For more than a decade, the company has supported the energy industry’s efforts to optimize oil and gas extraction. It commissions authors, editors and journal advisory board members who are employees at top oil firms.Elsevier also markets some of its research portals and data services directly to the oil and gas industry to help “increase the odds of exploration success”.
Several former and current employees say that for the past year, dozens of workers have spoken out internally and at company-wide town halls to urge Elsevier to reconsider its relationship with the fossil fuel industry.
“When I first started, I heard a lot about the company’s climate commitments,” said a former Elsevier journal editor who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “Eventually I just realized it was all marketing, which is really upsetting because Elsevier has published all the research it needs to know exactly what to do if it wants to make a meaningful difference.””
The article was written before Russia’s war on Ukraine began, a war exclusively made possible by our dependence on fossil fuels, with every Russo-Fascist rocket, plane, tank and warship paid for by the west (especially Europe), via oil and gas revenues. Every bombed house, hospital, kindergarten, birth clinic and ambulance, every single single civilian tragedy in Ukraine has been 100% financed by our ongoing gas and oil purchases from Fascist Russia. Ukrainian suffering will forever be on our conscience for refusing to divest from fossil fuels.
But Elsevier does not feel bad about their practice at all, in fact they feel they are actually saving the planet, and they are not alone:
“Elsevier and its parent company, RELX, say they are committed to supporting the fossil fuel industry as it transitions toward clean energy. […]
Elsevier is not alone in navigating relationships with both climate researchers and fossil fuel executives. Multiple other publishers of peer-reviewed climate research have signed on to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Publishers Compact while also partnering with the oil and gas industry in various ways.
The UK-based publisher Taylor & Francis, for example, signed the UN pledge and released its own net-zero commitments while also touting its publishing partnership with “industry leader” ExxonMobil, the oil company most linked to obstructionism on climate in the public consciousness. Another top climate publisher, Wiley, also signed on to the sustainability compact while publishing multiple books and journals aimed at helping the industry find and drill for more oil and gas.”
The business of scholarly publishing and ethics are incompatible.
Wiley, a predatory publisher?
Something strange happened to Wiley in the last year or two. This once rather respectable and half-way ethical global publishing giant from Germany is now competing with Elsevier to the race to the bottom of publishing ethics.
Look at this Chinese papermill product Smut Clyde and Elisabeth Bik reported already in early 2020. It appeared in a Wiley journal with an impact factor of 6 and a chief editor at Tufts University, USA, Angelo Azzi.
Hui Ma , Wei Cao , Meili Ding MicroRNA‐31 weakens cisplatin resistance of medulloblastoma cells via NF‐κB and PI3K/AKT pathways BioFactors (2020) doi: 10.1002/biof.1616
This western blot figure is entirely fictional: all bands were digitally generated and then pasted onto the same identical background. A western blot figure cannot get faker than this, well, not even if you draw the bands with a felt-tip pen on a Wiley executive’s computer screen.
Guess what Wiley decided though? A sleuth reports “the reply from the publisher” on PubPeer:
“Hi, the journal reviewed 16 papers. 7 showed potential irregularities. Investigations showed that image manipulation had taken place but was confined to normalizing background & didn’t alter intensity of the bands. The data remain reliable & we view the matter closed.”
No, wait, it gets better. Or worse, actually.
Another PubPeer sleuth, a certain Hoya camphorifolia, reminded of a public announcement from 17 December 2021, by the Jining First People’s Hospital where the “authors” of this papermill fabrication are employed (highlights mine):
“In order to strengthen the construction of scientific research integrity, severely punish violations, and create a good environment for scientific and technological innovation, the relevant paper issues recently investigated and dealt with by this unit are hereby notified as follows.
- The paper “MicroRNA-31 weakens cisplatin resistance of medulloblastoma cells via NF-κB and PI3K/AKT pathways”, published by Ding Meili as the corresponding author, Ma Hui as the first author, and Cao Wei as the co-first author, has been investigated. , there is academic misconduct of tampering with data. The relevant responsible persons are dealt with as follows: Ding Meili (corresponding author): Cancellation of application qualifications for scientific research projects, scientific research awards, scientific and technological achievements, scientific and technological talent plans within 5 years; cancellation of 5 years as nominee or recommender, nominated or recommender, review Experts and other qualifications; cancel their membership or membership in academic institutions such as societies and associations; postpone promotion to a higher-level professional and technical position for one year; order to contact the magazine as soon as possible to withdraw the manuscript; administrative warning. Ma Hui (first author, merged with 2 other papers): Cancellation of application qualifications for scientific research projects, scientific research awards, scientific and technological achievements, scientific and technological talent plans within 6 years; cancellation of 6 years as a nominee or recommender, nominee or recommender, Review experts and other qualifications; cancel their membership or membership in academic institutions such as societies and associations; revoke the higher-level professional and technical positions that they have obtained; postpone promotion to higher-level professional and technical positions for 4 years; administrative warning. Cao Wei (tied as the first author): Cancellation of application qualifications for scientific research projects, scientific research awards, scientific and technological achievements, scientific and technological talent plans within 5 years; Membership or membership of academic institutions such as societies, associations, etc. that have been obtained; revocation of relevant academic awards and honorary titles obtained through the use of thesis; postponement of employment for one-year high-level professional and technical positions; warning from the party.”
Now you tell me: how screwed-up is Wiley and if this is not the worst kind of predatory publisher attitude, what is it then?
News in Tweets
- Derek Lowe blogs about fake science in “peer-reviewed” journals, under the headline “How Much Published Crap Will We Put Up With?“: “But if we’re talking about trash, let’s revisit the smouldering pile of it produced by “Alireza Heidari”. I wrote about this situation a few years ago – in short, that’s a pseudonym for a guy in Irvine who has published scores of completely faked papers, all of which basically cite only his other faked papers. And he lists his affiliation as the nonexistant “California South University” whose website is another pile of fakery. […] None of it stands up to thirty seconds of actual scrutiny; your foot goes through the floorboards immediately. People have been writing about this idiocy for years, and it should be nothing more than a punchline now. You’d think. But “Heidari” continues to publish away…“
- Elisabeth Bik must eventually understand that scholarly publishers make magnitudes more money with fraud than with actual science. They won’t retract fake papers, just like a pub owner won’t kick out paying alcoholics.
- Remember that idiotic creationist paper Bunch et al 2021 in Scientific Reports which tried to attribute ancient meteorite strikes to Wrath of God, recorded in the Bible? Which, as Bik discovered, also contained digitally falsified images (read here)? Well, it got a mega-correction now, with all stolen images declared, even competing interests section was added! Conclusions about Sodom and Gomorrah unaffected.
- So when are Raoult’s IHU stooges are coming after us? Michel Drancourt‘s cretinous threat from a year ago reiterated: “A complaint was filed and an investigation opened to the Marseille prosecutor’s office for cyberbullying, attempted blackmail and extortion against the PUBPEER site and the identified perpetrators. These comments only represent opinions or misinterpretations of ethical procedures or publication procedures and are sometimes even libelous and insulting. These comments on Pubpeer will therefore not be answered, the authors of which cannot legally claim the protective status of whistleblower.“
- Finally, in case you wondered what Smut Clyde looks like: he is a fairy-tale gnome armed with a magic mushroom.
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For Better Science 
One comment about Fascist Russia. As you may know, they are currently trying a nuclear attack on Ukraine by shooting at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Zaporozhye with tanks. Right now, the fire around Block 1 was extinguished, the block was luckily not operational at that time.
This is irresponsible idiocy though:
When a nuclear reactor is attacked by bombs or artillery as it is now, the plant loses control over chain reaction, the reactor core melts down like it happened in block 4 of the Chernobyl plant. Zaporozhye has SIX blocks, it supplies 25% of Ukrainian power. If a meltdown happens, ALL of Europe will be contaminated with nuclear fall-out, and unlike the “expert” above claims, this fall out is anything but safe.
The Ukrainians are now shutting down the blocks to save Europe, even if it means leaving their bombed nation without electricity.
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Every high school students in Spain know the story of Galileo’s trial
and alleged whisper “Eppur si muove” before his inquisitors.
Students know this fake history and true one is only known by those
who read what is still published on the matter.
I knew that López Otín’s affaire would end like this when I read in February 2020 the statement of support for López Otín
from Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de España -RAC in further refererences-
where the manipulation with the images sent to journals was not denied by RAC
and RAC described it as
“NOT good scientific practice” and “should have been avoided”.
but RAC affirmed that it was certain that López Otín had no intention of modifying the scientific conclusions of his articles”.
The Academy uses as an argument CLO’s intention unveiled by RAC’s shamans or wizards
-one of those members, CLO himself-
Intention or not behind a practice performed can only be discerned on the basis of whether perpetrator had
sufficient knowledge or not of what perpetrator was doing and whether perpetrator’s will to do it was free or not.
Three days ago, Spanish newspapers published apology requests from authors of the blogs
“Ciencia Mundana” and “La Ciencia de la Mula Francis”
It is very unlikely that Galileo muttered anything.
In “sentenza di condanna” that concluded his trial,
Galileo was required to “abjure, curse, and detest” his own opinions
and it was written that he had to recite “salmi penitenziali” for three years,
but Galileo commissioned another person to recite them for him.
After his death while he was still in penance after his trial,
it was forbidden either to erect a mausoleum for him
or leave anything in writing as an epitaph that could offend the Tribunale della Santa Inquisitione
that trialed and sentenced him.
When you are a high school student and your teachers present Galileo’s ideas to you,
they may be wrong and invoke poetic or moral concepts as “the right side of History.”
Full wrong.
Our day to day should be to honor the great women and men who instructed us
and be consistent with our own ways and thinking: speak, write and act as we think.
Now I face my own trial about my points of view and opinions in a Court of First Instance
in Spain but I am not afraid. You can not live with fear.
Remember this: men make History and for wicked, fraudsters, and charlatanes to triumph
it is only necessary for a few men to do nothing.
Read
On Galileo’s trial and death here:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-galileos-groundbreaking-works-got-banned
On mouse model of Progeria run by Carlos López Otín:
On role of Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales de España related to CLO’s scandal:
https://www.efe.com/efe/espana/efefuturo/la-real-academia-de-ciencias-respalda-el-valor-cientifico-los-estudios-lopez-otin/50000905-4165025
On Alfredo Caro-Maldonado’s statements
“Disculpas a Otín: «La intrahistoria del caso es muy trágica; algún día tendrá que ser contada»”
https://www.lavozdeasturias.es/noticia/asturias/2022/02/28/disculpas-otin/00031646040931581420933.htm
On Francisco R. Villatoro’s statements
“Piden disculpas por desacreditar al científico Carlos López Otín”
https://www.diariodelaltoaragon.es/noticias/comarcas/alto-gallego/2022/03/01/piden-disculpas-por-desacreditar-al-cientifico-carlos-lopez-otin-1556595-daa.html
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In a previous comment I have spoken of the “abjuration” of two Spanish bloggers
in relation to Carlos López-Otín’s scandal.
I use abjuration in singular because in reality there has only been one
The other one has been a copy and paste on demand of the first one.
Amazings.es domain was born in 2010 July as a project to spread science on Internet promoted by four other bloggers.
In 2012 September amazing.es became naukas.es
Unlike other projects that end up in nothing due to lack of funding,
amazing.es was supported by paper magazine “Quo” edited by Spanish subsidiary of multinational Hachette Filipacchi.
“Quo” went out of print in 2019.
“Quo” and similar magazines do a lot of damage to science
because they only print quackery turning into real with infographic shit,
alleged advances that if they finally occur people will see them in a long run
but “Quo” went a step forward
Since 2014, every year “Quo” introduced Spanish science team to their readers.
As Kevin Maguire’s covers of Justice League International comicbook,
these thirteen spanish scientists posed proudly with a shirt of the Spanish soccer team
ready to save the world from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,
to recover Sankara Stones with a whip,
to solve the problem of the bad smell of feet
or whatever thing you can imagine because this thing was backed by Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas of Spain
On the other side, in 2012 Amazings.es then Naukas.es started to began to reward the contributions
of three people among their regular and guests collaborators with Nikola Tesla Award
Back to “abjuration” of two bloggers and while CLO writes another book to unveil the so-called
“intrahistoria” of all this thing -Queen Letizia of Spain, russian hackers, 6000 gen-mod mice that can not shit due to progerin,
and all the early 2019 exposed stuff dont you remember?
The real thing can be exposed with a single tweet
Remember HighLander and Queen’s “Don’t Loose Your Head”
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I disagree.
Facts are that there were figure issues in the first eight published at from
Journal of Biological Chemistry and that graphs in a ninth at Nature Cell Biology
were not backed by any numerical data provided by the authors
– data availability, data description and figure assembly –
and that they could not provide such ones on request as far as I remember.
Retraction of the eight articles from the Journal of Biological Chemistry
and the article from Nature Cell Biology are consequences of all that has been said
and recognized by authors on retraction preface.
As well as withdrawal of the ‘Nature Award for Mentoring in Science’ is a consequence too
Since we’re talking about harassment,
I don’t know what “acoso científico” means,
Let’s pick one of the many troll accounts out there on Twitter landscape
and put it under the microscope of some analytics tools.
Those tools reveal that the account was created on Sunday May 23, 2021
That date coincides with the timestamp of its pinned tweet
After issuing two unique tweets leaving one as pinned that day,
this account has been dormant until yesterday when it tweeted twice pointing
to the twitter account of a journalist from Materia,
science, health and environment section of the Spanish newspaper El País.
The account has only published 4 tweets, all of them related to the López Otín case.
A month ago I read the reference of the book “Confessions of a Russian bot”
They work in groups of about ten people who control many fake accounts dedicated to insulting and disrupting speeches to promote or bring down a reputation or a product.
In Spain “azul turquí” the color of woman’s robe in photoshopped pic of a reply of this troll-account
-press tweets and replies tab if you want-
is probably the color that wear graduates of science faculties:
chemical and biological sciences…
Do not confuse harassment with outrage and protest with a reason.
They are not the same.
In every case of harassment, an element that must be paid attention to :
power and influence relationships because they appear in all cases.
In harassment, these relationships allow threats and intimidation
to the point of isolating and driving victim into panic.
López Otín affair will still bring us more surprises
Maybe not.
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On Wednesday, March 23, we saw another request for an apology tweeted from account of another science popularizer.
“Modus Operandi” is the same, López Otín, accompanied by another person,
interviewed the critic and reveals confidential circumstances of affaire
that cannot be unveiled to public opinion but that explain it.
Explanations and apologies -a thread of 14 tweets- are worthy of the self-incriminations during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the only thing missing is a video of the investigator crying dressed
in a Mao suit asking the people for forgiveness.
Despite facts as perennial northern blot -a salami slicing-
manipulations of images
and that group of researchers could not provide any raw data
on which their graphs were based at the request of the journal
are well know to public and in plain sight,
in reality the fault lies with mental health of the critics,
with high rate of inbreeding in Spanish universities
with the fact that the editorial boards of scientific journals have their own criteria and are independent and with “publish or perish” and peer review.
This atmosphere of nefarious vices harmed a newcomer to Celtiberian science scene as López Otín Even in his health.
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Lifespan of a lab mouse is one to three years
and it reaches a weight between 20 and 30 g
Do you know how a lab mouse is euthanized?
I read about this and lots of things during the nights that I studied López Otín’s affaire
astic bag with little corpses of the 6,000 mice raised and euthanized for nothing in animal facility
in University of Oviedo weighed between 120 and 180 kg.
And that’s all
Curious that I am referred as ignorant by Calamity Jane who does not even know that there is no Nobel Prize in Biochemistry but in Medicine and Physiology
“Ladran, Sancho, señal que cabalgamos”
In any case, both López Otín and I share something:
neither he nor I have received a Nobel Prize
Let me tell you, López Otín will never receive a Nobel Prize because he does not deserve it.
For those of you who are in the dark of not knowing what is going to happen
and are afraid of the powerful people who rule in Spain,
remind you a verse from Dylan’s song:
“the times they are a-changin'”
In the end, every farce ends,
public clap
and people start to return home.
It’s when clowns’ makeup turns sour and fraudsters’ masks fall off.
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Today conclusions of an internal procedure at University of Oviedo
-quoted as UniOvi in next references-
on alleged bullyng of Professor Carlos López Otín have been leaked to media.
Consequently, UniOvi is opening another procedure
-internal,reserved and confidential- against two persons:
an emeritus professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
and a professor from Department of Psychobiology of refered acedemic institution.
Of those ones, instructor affirms that first one intimidated in his office a worker
willing to testify in favor of Otín in investigation of alleged bullying
campaign and last one of a massive dissemination of an email with
considerations about scientific work and person who would have been harmful for
academic prestige and job and personal dignity of López Otín.
López Otín has been telling the press that he had learned
in late 2017 of a low-intensity harassment campaign against him
All points to the fact that these events refered by instructor designed by UniOvi
took place after the scandal that followed to publication in El País of the
retraction of the eight articles published in Journal of Biological Chemistry
Another one published in Nature Cell Biology was retracted too
and Nature Mentoring Award was revoked.
While on Université Paris V Descartes, it was López Otín himself who told the press that more of 5,000
genetically modified mice of his research group were eutanized in animal facility of University of Oviedo.
Conclusions of university do not clarify anything on this matter.
López Otín had received an “advanced grant” of 2.5 million euros from European Research Council
Officials of ERC contacted UniOvi after publication of retraction of articles.
You can read on this:
“Caso Otín: La Universidad confirma un episodio de acoso” by F. Sotomonte
at La Voz De Asturias pub 2022 April 13
http://www.lavozdeasturias.es/noticia/asturias/2022/04/13/otin-universidad-confirma-episodio-acoso/00031649847159575942558.htm
“López-Otín sopesa irse de Asturias”
at La Voz De Asturias pub 2019 April 13
http://www.lavozdeasturias.es/noticia/asturias/2019/04/13/lopez-otin-sopesa-irse-asturias/00031555177585421993862.htm
“Más de 5.000 ratones con los que investigaba López Otín, sacrificados por una infección”
at Europa Press pub 2019 February 01
https://www.europapress.es/asturias/noticia-mas-5000-ratones-investigaba-lopez-otin-sacrificados-infeccion-20190201163709.html
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As I explained, to understand López Otín’s “affaire” you have to look at high inbreeding
of Spanish public universities
and complex power struggles of University of Oviedo.
When previous rector lost elections,
the hoax of “acoso científicot” denounced by López Otín was reactivated.
Now former Rector is blamed by not acting with due diligence.
Of the two professors mentioned in procedure followed by
Disciplinary Board of University of Oviedo,
one is married to a person who aspired to chair professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2017
That chair was finally to a close collaborator of López Otín.
As I told you, a photoshopped pic of this woman was uploaded by twitter trolls.
I have reviewed a pic of refered professor and the photoshopped one included
in the tweet and they are the same person.
UniOvi Disciplinary Board does not hold either of the two professors responsible
for alleged cyberbullying or infection that led to the sacrifice
of more than 5,000 genetically modified mice
in animal facility.
Proven facts in Board’s conclusions do not constitute crimes
and there will be no criminal action in spanish Court.
“La Universidad relaciona a dos profesores con la campaña de desprestigio sufrida por López Otín.”
by Pablo Álvarez
pub at La Nueva España 2022 April,13
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/04/13/universidad-relaciona-profesores-campana-desprestigio-64962725.html
“High rate of inbreeding in Spanish universities” by
Arcadio Navarro and Ana Rivero
pub at Nature 2001 March,01
https://www.nature.com/articles/35065259
Troll account’s tweet including refered photoshopped pic
uploaded 2021 May,31
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Someone leaked the informative file on López Otín’s accusations to La Nueva España,
which reproduces the last page in an article along with its usual infographic.
File is signed in 2021 February, 28 -wrong year, I guess-
File should have been sent to the UniOvi Disciplinary Board and possibly to the complainant and defendants.
Early in March, López Otín knew that he had nothing
while spanish media was offering bloggers and popularizers’ public abjurations.
Pofessor emeritus’ statement to La Nueva España made me think that López Otín demanded unwavering support from everyone
in the early days of scandal:
spanish scientists in Biochemistry area, Aragonese and Asturian universities authorities, politicians, journalists, bizmen etc.
No grays.
“Las tensiones en el departamento estrella de la Universidad”
by Elena Rodríguez pub 2022 Abril,15 at El Comercio
https://www.elcomercio.es/asturias/universidad/universidad-oviedo-carlos-lopez-otin-tensiones-departamento-estrella-20220415214021-nt.html
“Una comisión de ocho miembros decidirá si hay sanciones por el “caso Otín”,
mientras los señalados replican que ‘no hay pruebas’”
by Mónica G. Salas pub 2022 April,14 at La Nueva España
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/04/14/hablan-profesores-denunciados-acoso-otin-64999386.html
“Las veinte páginas del ‘caso Otín’”
by Mónica G. Salas pub 2022 April,15 at La Nueva España
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/04/15/veinte-paginas-caso-otin-65028107.htm
“El bioquímico motero y deportista”
by Elena Rodríguez pub 2016 Abril,13
https://www.elcomercio.es/asturias/201604/13/bioquimico-motero-deportista-20160413002903-v.html
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Read carefully the linked op-ed pub at “La Nueva España”:
“maldad genética”
“De 2017 a la actualidad: repaso a la campaña de desprestigio que sufre Carlos López Otín”
op-ed by Pilar Rubiera pub 2022 April,17 at La Nueva España
https://www.lne.es/opinion/2022/04/17/actualidad-repaso-campana-desprestigio-sufre-65071216.html
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It’s paywalled. What do they call for? My head? Mass hangings in Spanish universities of all those who refuse to fake science?
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Sorry I can read full op-ed of La Nueva España
and I was not able to find how to reply to your comment, Dr. Schneider so I reply to one of mine
Op-ed at La Nueva España has some either errors or misconcepts.
Pilar Rubiera wrote:
“Uno de los testigos propuestos por el juez instructor, profesor de Psicología,
califica lo padecido por López Otín como “un ejemplo de ciberacoso,
una sofisticada campaña de desprestigio en la que el actor principal parece ser el Dr. Leonid Schneider, que sostiene un blog denominado “For better science”.
that I translate into:
“One of the witnesses proposed by the investigating judge, a psychology professor,
describes what López Otín suffered as “an example of cyberbullying,
a sophisticated smear campaign in which the main actor seems to be Dr. Leonid Schneider,
who holds a blog called “For better science”..
WRONG. There was no judge at all.
After López Otín’s complaint, UniOvi appointed an instructor to investigate it.
Such instructor was a professor from School of Law of University of Oviedo.
It has been an administrative procedure in UniOvi that concluded with an informative file
submited to UniOvi Disciplinary Board
with recommendations about two professors.
After retractions due to figures issues in JBC and data availability, data description and figure assembly issues in Nature Cell Biology that led to articles in El País, events took place in two enviroments:first one is Department and second one is Governing Board of UniOvi.
In 80s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UniOvi was created
by Dr. Santiago Gascón and Dr. Sánchez Lazo
-PhD. at Salamanca and postdoc at Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, NJ, USA-
Dr. Sánchez Lazo commented to La Nueva España:
“Mi relación con Carlos López Otín siempre fue buena, de cordialidad,
hasta que tuvo lugar el incidente de las revistas. Yo no manifesté mi opinión ni a favor ni en contra y, a partir de ahí, se enfrió la relación”
that I translate into:
“My deal with Carlos López Otín was always good, cordial,
until the incident of the journals took place. I did not express my opinion either for or against and, from then on, relationship cooled down.”
Rubiera refers to the rector of UniOvi as “Santiago Gutiérrez Granda”
Wrong again. It is Dr. “Santiago García Granda”
As other hooligans of López Otín and his conspiracy theories
she hold García Granda responsible for not acting with due diligence.
If you remember, López Otín threatened to leave the University of Oviedo
possibly with ERC grant cash.
So no grays.
Most interesting thing is reference in informative file to a hearings with persons in charge
of UniOvi Bioterium because it does not match with what it was published in Asturian media in 2017
“entrada de un roedor salvaje o procedente de otro centro de investigación, o la contaminación
de los materiales que se utilizan para el mantenimiento de los ratones.
Destacando que el informe advierte tanto de lo inadecuado del diseño del Bioterio para
evitar la entrada de roedores externos o de insectos, como de diversas prácticas no adecuadas en el mantenimiento del Bioterio, como el almacenaje de material en desuso o deficiencias en la debida separación entre los materiales limpios y los sucios”.
Instead of vault with strict safety and hygiene controls that it was pictured in 2017,
persons in charge of Bioterium described a place where wild life could enter
and had a party with gen-mod mice
and where waste was mixed with new material.
López Otín referred to more than 5,000 gen-mod mice that were euthanized
as a boycott of his work
Rubiera refers thousands of patients who could have been
treated of cancer and aging
-with happier ending than 6K mice of Bioterium, I guess-
with therapies based on López Otín’s experiments on those mice.
Wrong again.
Cell cultures and animal models of human diseases are a early step for therapies.
Rubiera is not a scientist but a journalist of “La Nueva España”.
She chairs the Board of Trustees of Ciudad de Oviedo Music Foundation.
I think they just want “intrahistoria” to become true,
to hold someone accountable,and erase every critic page of internet.
Continue weaving their networks of influence in Spanish public universities
while good students flee and unfortunates ones ruin their lives.
Continue fantasizing that López Otín
will receive the Nobel Prize one of these years and let no one tell you otherwise.
So good nite from Spain and good luck to you all.
PD.- When the Spanish justice did not find a person trialed as guilty by Holy Inquisition, a portrait or a puppet that represented him was burned.
If the culprit had died, bones were exhumed and burned.
University of Oviedo was created at request of Grand Inquisitor
Seis mil ratones para la investigación
by Azahara Villacorta pub 2017,July 25
https://www.elcomercio.es/sociedad/seis-ratones-investigacion-20170725010431-ntvo.html
“Las veinte páginas del ‘caso Otín'”
by Mónica G. Salas pub 2022 April,15 in La Nueva España
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/04/15/veinte-paginas-caso-otin-65028107.html
“Carlos López-Otín: ‘Tras el boicot a mi trabajo, acepto ofertas laborales en Aragón'”
by Ramón J. Campo pub at El Heraldo 2019 April,11
https://www.heraldo.es/noticias/aragon/2019/04/11/carlos-lopez-otin-tuve-que-sacrificar-6-000-ratones-infectados-del-laboratorio-1308636.html
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LOL.
Brand new op-ed at La Nueva España.
In human thought.
in swans’ ways of thinking, I dare not say anything,
from arguments a thesis is deduced.
A fallacy is an argument that appears to be true but it is not.
The art of fallacy allows “charlatanes” to deceive honest but gullible people.
People with little education confuse Giordano Bruno with Galileo and Copernicus.
Bruno was not a scientist but a theologian and perhaps a philosopher.
I am going to ask you a question:
why do you think that the Earth moves?
Bruno ratified himself before inquisitors saying that the Earth had a soul
and that was the reason.
Galileo and Kepler talked about inertia and Newton exposed his laws
Rememberance of the horror of the processes of the Holy Inquisition
should not make us prone to the fallacies.
Bruno was brought to trial, sentenced and burned for his theological statements.
Quoting La Nueva España op-ed:
“A ellos se sumó un foráneo buitre carroñero,llamado Schneider,
cuya mayor obsesión fue volar en círculos amedrentadores sobre Carlos,
con graznidos que reclamaban la presencia de otros de su especie”.
that I translate into:
“They were joined by a foreign scavenger vulture, named Schneider,
whose greatest obsession was flying in scary circles over Carlos,
with squawks that claimed the presence of others of their kind”.
Heh.
In the science that humans do,
in the science that swans do, I dare not say anything,
hypotheses come up against what is measured or observed in experiments.
Bruno did not use the scientific method but mysticism,
revelation and esotericism.
I explained it in La Ciencia De La Mula Francis.
“Affaire” is not a valid debate on scientific method but post-truth.
After reading brand new op-ed at La Nueva España
Do you see the copy and paste in the Blot
and Perennial Northern Blot over and over again
or the bleeding body of the asturian swan?
“Ladran, Sancho, señal que cabalgamos”.
You can read:
“Otín, el cisne hereje y la Santa Inquisición” Una fábula.
by Rafael S. Avello pub at La Nueva España 2022 April, 19.
https://www.lne.es/opinion/2022/04/19/otin-cisne-hereje-santa-inquisicion-65124923.html
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They need psychiatric help there.
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This comparison of St Carlos of Oviedo to Giordano Bruno is just lame.
Since it was Easter, the only correct comparison is to Jesus Christ, who was martyred and crucified by JEWS like Schneider.
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NOT TRUE.
López-Otín has not been the victim of any cancellation.
Any search returns us lots of pages of his statements, interviews or opinions after 2019 scandal.
His group went on being backed and funded since 2019
He has written three books and all those three ones have been published
with a huge coverage in spanish media.
“La vida en cuatro letras: Claves para entender la diversidad, la enfermedad y la felicidad” in 2019
“El sueño del tiempo: Un ensayo sobre las claves del envejecimiento y la longevidad”
co-authored with Guido Kroemer in 2020
and “Egoístas, inmortales y viajeras: Las claves del cáncer y de sus nuevos tratamientos: conocer para curar” in 2021.
The outbreak at Bioterium of UniOvi occurs in the summer of 2018 NOT IN early 2019 as its said
in The Objetive
Outbreak is immediately detected by veterinarians when they observe that the newborn pups suffered from diarrhea and some died.
The biological agent is isolated and identified
Sometimes its a murine coronavirus linked to hepatitis MHV-CoV
other times it’s leukemia retrovirus MLV
Who cares?
Almost one year after the outbreak in bioterium, in an interview with López Otín,
a journalist from El País asked him:
“How is it possible that there was an infection in his animal facility? Do you know what happened?”
And López-Otin replies:
“No, I didn’t study it and I won’t study it. The main damage is in my mind, everything else doesn’t matter to me.”
In following months, Otín will refer to the outbreak as a boycott of his work.
If I haven’t convinced you yet, I propose new searches limited by time frames
Visit and read results as I have been doing. No group has closed ranks against Otin.
It has been the opposite:
Some three years after scandal, critic pages are deleted,
comments were censored
and twitter accounts were closed or are in mute forever.
Dawn over Spain and I’m tired.
This is not over and will never be over
because they will not stop until Otín’s “intrahistoria” becomes a truth of faith.
in Spain and will be teach to kids in schools.
You can read:
“Carlos López-Otín, el último gran caso de cancelación en el universo científico español”
by María Paredes Ramírez pub at The Objetive 2022 April 04
https://theobjective.com/sociedad/2022-04-20/carlos-lopez-otin-cancelacion/
“¿Quién podía imaginar que yo tendría la tentación de perder la vida?”
interview by Manuel Ansede pub at El País 2019 April,11.https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/04/10/ciencia/1554916951_385474.html
“Nuevos ratones para seguir investigando”
by Laura Mayordomo pub at El Comercio 2019 March,03
https://www.elcomercio.es/asturias/nuevos-ratones-seguir-investigando-universidad-oviedo-20190303034633-nt.html
“El Instituto Carlos III financiará un proyecto de López-Otín y López Soto sobre el coronavirus”
EUROPA PRESS echoed by El Comercio 2020 May 14
https://www.elcomercio.es/sociedad/coronavirus-proyecto-carlos-lopez-otin-lopez-soto-20200514173318-nt.html
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Russia is also crying about being subject to cancel culture now.
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This tweet was uploaded yesterday -2022 April,20-
In La Voz de Asturias, a local media outlet, you can read that
two science popularizers published their apologies to the Asturian researcher
for the controversy that followed the retraction of some publications.
F.S. author of refered article In La Voz de Asturias,
associates a person with a name and surname to each blog
I have collected this information in this way in previous comments.
The entry “Disculpas públicas a Carlos López Otín”
in one of the blogs appears under the “nom de plume” Cienciamundana.
Twitter account Cienciamundana exists and you can read
“on mute indefinidamente” in its details.
Profile pic of Cienciamundana was changed to a BW banner “I’m on mute”
with a mic drawing with a ban sign overlayed.
Cienciamundana.com domain has expired although blog in WordPress is readable
So I apologize for each and every one of the names that I have written here.
I could search for an email address and personally contact them before including their names
here but I didn’t.
I’m sorry.
You can read:
“Disculpas a Otín: «La intrahistoria del caso es muy trágica; algún día tendrá que ser contada»”
by F.S. pub at La Voz De Asturias 2022 February, 28
https://www.lavozdeasturias.es/noticia/asturias/2022/02/28/disculpas-otin/00031646040931581420933.htm
“Disculpas públicas a Carlos López Otín”
by cienciamundana uploaded 2022 February,24
https://cienciamundana.wordpress.com/2022/02/24/disculpas-publicas-a-carlos-lopez-otin/
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that it could be translated as:
Collaborators of chair professor at University of Oviedo break four years of silence
to defend integrity of their teacher against harassers:
“Leitmotifs of his have always been seriousness and rigor”
Almost five years ago in PubPeer:
https://www.pubpeer.com/search?q=Carlos+L%C3%B3pez+Ot%C3%ADn
You will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:16)
Everything is more understandable if you think that what exists between HUCA and ISPA
-Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias- under uNioVi was sold
to asturians as “white lab coat mile”,
a research pole in biomedicine, cancer, artificial intelligence and whatever.
Despite promised “well paid employments” that such pole was going to create,
Asturias recovers rate of population loss of 2008
-year of economic armageddon in Spain-:
an aging population, no babies, no immigration -a lack of opportunities, I guess-
ISPA requested in 2021 to be accredited as a center of excellence
by Instituto de Salud Carlos III so they could ask for money to Spain and Europe
and override politicians of Principado de Asturias -FINBA-
Why?
Isn’t Asturias a democracy and its scientists pursue only supreme good of knowledge?
Ah, things are often not what they seem
I continue another day
A not signed article that you can read:
“La huella científica y humana de López Otín, valorada por sus discípulos”
pub at La Nueva España 2022 April 24
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/04/24/huella-cientifica-humana-lopez-otin-65317437.html
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ah, same Pablo Alvarez “journalist” and personal friend of Carlos, from Opus Dei. With the usual picture of St Carlos clutching poor Sammy Basso whom Carlos promised to cure because this is the kind of unscrupulous mendacious git our Carlos is.
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On 2022, April 24, blogger CienciaMundana announced in this tweet
a return to spanish podcast scene,although BW pic with “I’m on mute” and a mic with a ban sign
overlayed is kept as profile picture of linked twitter account.
In 90s, Kingdom of Spain sent warships to sea blockade Irak
and Spanish singer Marta Sanchez sang “SoLDaDoS DeL aMoR” aboard frigate Numancia.
It is said that more than one rookie sailor lost his innocence on that night.
IMHO “affaire” of Huesca biologist and researcher and swan based in Oviedo
has made more than one lose their innocence.
May the force be with you, CienciaMundana.
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La Nueva España publishes today a sensible opinion article.
His Honor Luis Roda García, chief judge of Gijón, suggests a judicial prosecution
into the sacrifice of more than 5,000 genetically modified mice in the animal facility of the University of Oviedo.
The crime of damage is typified in article 263 of Spanish Penal Code, which in point 2, sixth paragraph, refers
to either particularly serious damage or damage that affects general interests.
Outbreak was detected in 2018 summer and the statute of limitations for this crime in spanish legal system is five years
Entire episode of the outbreak in bioterium remains in complete darkness almost four years later.
I have read pages and pages and I have to confess that I do not understand anything.
The first issue that surprised me was the identification of the responsible biological agent:
on 2019 January 31, 2019, six months after the outbreak,
La Voz de Asturias, a local media outlet, pointed to a virus related to leukemia, that is a leukovirus -retrovirus-
On March 3, 2019, in “El Comercio”, another local media, it can be read that it was a virus related to hepatitis in mice,
then a coronavirus -four possible strains-
The second issue is Information and Communication Services of uNioVi.
While local media are full of news from University of Oviedo, ISPA and HUCA, nothing has been published about an outbreak
that forced the officials responsible for the animal facility to euthanize most of livestock in animal facility
It is López Otín himself who tells Europa Press while in Université Paris-Descartes -his stay was published, by the way-
about it.
A third issue is López Otín’s own statements to the newspaper El País in interview dated 2019 April,11
A journalist from El País asked him:
“How is it possible that there was an infection in his animal facility? Do you know what happened?”
And López-Otin replies:
“No, I didn’t study it and I won’t study it. The main damage is in my mind, everything else doesn’t matter to me.”
There would be more inexplicable things but I have been writing about them and repeating it is tiresome.
Ahora en castellano.
Señoría ya que usted se refiere a la investigación y al combate diario de los jueces españoles
contra la mentira, la ocultación de información y la tergiversación, le diré, con respeto debido,
aunque un op-ed ni es un auto, ni una sentencia, ni una providencia
y con esto en mente tras haberle leido, le replico a usted,
le diré, repito, que los méritos en Ciencia no se acreditan con el sufrimiento, daño o dolor, del meritorio
ni aunque sean más expuestos por tener buenos amigos en sitios importantes.
La Ciencia consiste en formular hipótesis y enfrentarlas con los datos obtenidos en los experimentos,
y estos -los experimentos- deben cumplir algunas condiciones:
una, el principio de independencia del observador
otra, que sean reproducibles
y todo lo que nos enseñan desde los años de Instituto
Esperemos que se abra esa investigación judicial sobre el brote infeccioso en el bioterio.
Es lo más sensato de todo este asunto que he leído desde 2019.
Aunque ¿sabe?
“a este respecto debo confesar que tengo” la convicción de que no sucederán “las cosas tal y como deseo.”
The rest of the links were refered in other comments of mine and articles at ForBetterScience
and you can read:
“El acoso a Otín y la infección en el bioterio” por Luis Roda
pub at La Nueva España 2022 April,29
https://www.lne.es/opinion/2022/04/29/acoso-otin-infeccion-bioterio-65510668.html
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After rereading aforementioned article by Chief Judge of Gijón in La Nueva España,
point out several things
If the researcher from Huesca based in Oviedo has filed a complaint for cyber-harassment
and Chief Judge is stating that he sees it,
that will be prosecuted because it is a criminal offence in Spain.
In addition to being especially serious because alleged harassed researcher had to consult his psychiatrist and he is an vulnerable old man.
Of evidence provided in complaint, if it exists, Prosecutor will ask the Judge to identify and intervene communications of those referred and the Judge will agree.
Something similar to what has happened with Pegasus spyware in Catalonia.
And no Spanish judge will then be accountable for violating any of your fundamental rights.
You will not find out anything until either an entry into your home be agreed
or you become imputed BUT FOR ONE THING.
Programs used by either Spanish Guardia Civil or Policía Nacional are foreign.
They do not know exactly how they work and it is easy to detect that your communications are being tapped.
Sometimes you are not connected but audit programs reports that you were
because tapped connection is still open on LEOs’ side.
Lots of other things.
It is similar to Mortadelo and Filemón comics.
It is stated in op-ed that there is an external report that value damages at around 3 million euros.
Curiously, it is close to 2.5 million from the advanced grant of the European Research Council.
In addition, there are unquantifiable damages that are the millions of people
who would have been cured of cancer and aging
from fabulous therapies that would be developed at Asturian labs
although so far they have only been able to improve flavor of some yogurts.
In fact, His Honor already says in op-ed that researcher told him that there were patients in treatment
but that Spanish Personal Data Protection Law prevents researcher from saying how many
and who they were.
No one is going to investigate outbreak and massacre at Bioterio of University of Oviedo.
Forget about that.
No one.
That does not matter.
As it was said: “Mice don’t go to heaven”
who cares then?
Haven’t you wondered why “@MireiaFraser” deleted her anonymous twitter account after I posted her tweet here?
There are lots of important people with well paid positions involved in this
who have been lying and slandering for decades and plundering.
Why does the other scoundrel keep singling out people for committing crimes
using anonymous twitter accounts?
For those of you next to a jaw dropping event while reading this, remember that this is not new.
In 70s, three “World Powers” claimed that they had a cure for every cancer:
the USA, the Soviet Union and guess what? Spain.
In those years in Spain it was thought that cancer cells -any tissue – could revert to normal cells
by using molecules that were simply anti-oxidants
and this was due to the fact that those -germinal- cancers were induced in lab animals to experiment with them.
It is exactly the same against what Dr. Ramón y Cajal warned at the end of the 19th century
over and over again.
In those years, Spanish radio broadcasts were full of crooks
claiming that Down syndrome could be reverted and cured and asking for money to dads and grandpas
and journalists who acquiesced on this.
Why? What was intended is for Public Health to authorize and finance these fraudulent therapies with cheap compounds
but that would be sold at considerable prices.
Commissions, kickbacks, bribes, easy profits for all.
Spain has the proud of being the country that cured male baldness and excess body hair.
Don’t laugh, it was a serious problem here
In 70s Spanish women didn’t like either bald men or hairy men
and sex is important E-V-E-R in Spain.
Doctor fled with the money and left that generation of Spanish men even balder and with no sex at all.
It is part of the History of Spanish Miraculous Medicine.
Si he sufrido la sed, el hambre, todo
lo que era mío y resultó ser nada,
si he segado las sombras en silencio,
me queda la palabra.
Tened cuidado pero dejar de hablar y escribir.NUNCA
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“López Otín and his group have given everything for Asturias”
an open letter from Dr. Carlos Suárez Nieto published in La Nueva España
where ForBetterScience and its “gestor” are alluded to.
Dr. Carlos Suárez Nieto (M.D. Ph.D.) is former scientific director of ISPA,
emeritus chair professor at University of Oviedo,
cancer researcher and otorhinolaryngologist, but his open letter bores me
maybe because he is a failed writer.
An interview published in La Nueva España in 2011 is more interesting because Dr.Suárez
talks about three things that amused to me
The first one is that the Opus Dei is very strong lobby among Spanish oncologists
in Dr.Suárez’s view
The second one is that Opus Dei tried to get him into “La oBRa”
when he was studying Medicine in Valladolid
but he he said no and then he moved from “Acción Católica” to Spanish Communist Party PCE
(1974 to 1983)
This was predictable because at the age of 14 in a summer school in France,
Dr.Suárez discovered French women wearing bikinis in seaside and liked it.
Enjoy such views as all Spanish Catholic boys well know, is a sin.
The third one is that in his second year of studies of Medicine,
Dr.Suárez loved go out for drinking some wine,
sidewalking to “les boites de nuit” at Valladolid
and rookie hazing rituals there.
In Sevilla, at Faculty of Physics, we didn’t have time to party as Dr.Suárez did in his second year
because we had to go to class in the morning, attend laboratory sessions in the afternoon,
study, solve assigned problems or program the software we needed and write lab reports.
I should have studied Medicine in Valladolid.
By the way, in November 1982, critics led by
Gerardo Iglesias expelled General Secretary of PCE Santiago Carrillo and some years later
-1986- these critics purgued
After that Old Party Guard moved to PSOE -socialist- as Dr.Suárez did.
Lots of money were not found when Julio Anguita arrived in 1988
“Carta de Carlos Suárez, ex director científico del ISPA: ‘López Otín y su grupo lo han dado todo por Asturias'”
by Carlos Suárez Nieto pub at La Nueva España, 2022 May,05
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/2022/05/02/carta-carlos-suarez-ex-director-65618595.html
“‘Abandoné la religión porque el Opus me dio demasiado la vara'”
an interview to Dr.Carlos Suárez Nieto pub at La Nueva España, 2011,August,14
https://www.lne.es/mas-domingo/2011/08/14/abandone-religion-opus-dio-vara-21046205.html
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Asturian science saves the world from bio-Armageddon again
and La Nueva España is here ready to tell us about it.
Microbiology service of Central University Hospital of Asturias or HUCA
has just reported the finding of Asturian variant of SarsCov2.
Almost 30 months after first cases of pneumonia in Wuhan and identification of the biological agent
but Asturian science titans continue to generate knowledge to serve Humankind.
Godspeed, heroes!
While on twitter, the finding has the expected reception
“El HUCA detecta una nueva variante del coronavirus que podría ser específica de Asturias”
by Pablo Álvarez pub at La Nueva España 2022 May,03
https://www.lne.es/asturias/2022/05/03/huca-detecta-nueva-variante-coronavirus-65675327.html
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On November 7, 2022, newspaper La Nueva España published “The true story of the ‘López Otín case'” by Pedro Sánchez Lazo.
Dr. Sanchez Lazo, now an emeritus professor at the University of Oviedo, was one of the two professors pointed out in López Otín’s
complaint for alleged harassment to the Rector of UniOvi.
The two investigations in UniOvi have concluded with the close of the first and a minor fault as result of the second one.
Years ago I wrote in a series of comments in “La Ciencia De La Mula Francis” -now deleted-
that this whole affaire boiled down to post-truth.
The thing turned from scientific research good practices with researcher’s responsibility to those who pay it
into whitewashing in Spanish centers of power, companies and corporations.
You can read
“La verdadera historia del’caso López Otín'” by Pedro Sánchez Lazo
pub La Nueva España 2022, Nov.07 -payWalled-
https://www.lne.es/sociedad/opinion/2022/11/07/historia-caso-lopez-otin-78228209.html
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It’s shitwalled, pardon, paywalled.
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Pay attention to podcast -Spanish- cut from 9:24 to 13:13
Ep412_A: Hiperlumínico;Galaxias;Proteínas Aberrantes;Doble Rendija Temporal;
Hidrógeno Metálico.
Coffee Break: Señal y Ruido
https://shows.acast.com/coffee-break-senal-y-ruido/episodes/ep412a-hiperluminico-galaxias-proteinas-aberrantes-doble-ren
In this podcast, episodes 200 and 253 were related to this affair.
“We few, we happy few,
we band of brothers;
for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother”
Espero que todo se resuelva para bien.
Best wishes
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In relation to nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the current situation, indicate several things.
It is not only important to secure production plants, but also High Activity nuclear waste deposits
-very polluting for a long time- or fuel processing plants.
In a situation of siege to avoid China syndrome or radiological leak -a nuke explosion would not be possible in this case- ,
Ukrainian authority should have ordered shutting down nuclear reactors where some of the burned fuel has already been formed
and secure nuclear waste depots, but that might not have been possible if the country relies primarily on its nuclear power plants.
In Spain, due to the demagoguery of our political leaders and a very complicated political situation,
high-level nuclear waste is stored in pools and facilities near the power plants and in some cases is exported abroad
at great cost to the Spanish people.
This non-existent management of our nuclear waste has been denounced over and over again by concerned citizens like me
since early 2K receiving the three wise monkeys as a response from the Spanish media, watchdogs and asshole leaders of ours.
It show that Spain is a shithole country
From this point of view, it is in Europe’s best interest that either the Russians or a joint IAEA mission in Ukraine
take control of these facilities as soon as possible.
You can read:
On Nuclear Waste Sites as either military or terrorist targets in current situation in Ukraine:
https://time.com/6152144/ukrainian-nuclear-waste-sites-damaged/
On three wise monkeys’ policy of management of HLW from Spanish nuclear power plants and research facilities
“El cementerio nuclear” -spanish- uploaded in 22/01/2010
https://forum.lawebdefisica.com/blogs/alfre/316125-el-cementerio-nuclear
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Today El País publishes what was an open secret.
In absence of a Temporary Central Storage Facility,
we will have several radioactive cemeteries:
spanish archipelago -not gulag- of nuclear cemeteries throughout our geography
I have written here that in Spain, high-level waste from nuclear power plants in operation is stored in pools or adjoining facilities.
As far as I remember, High Level waste from “Vandellós I” nuclear accident was sent out of Spain to be vitrified and Spain has exported about 100 tons of spent fuel
from Santa María de Garoña (burn from 1971 to 1983) to United Kingdom
Once reprocessed outside, if Spain accept it back, this shit drowns us,
so Spaniards pay penalties and compensation
but don’t let this shit to come back to our sunny country, please.
Of the two plants closed,
doubts about the waste from the dismantling of Almonacid de Zorita nuclear power plant were raised
years ago and nuclear fuel -spent since 1983- of Santa María de Garoña power plant that was shut down in 2012 is still kept in its pool.
Enjoy and pay.
You can read on this:
“El gran dilema nuclear: España está abocada a tener siete cementerios radiactivos ante la falta de un almacén centralizado.”
by Manuel Planelles pub at El País, 2022 May,01
https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2022-05-01/el-gran-marron-nuclear-espana-esta-abocada-a-tener-siete-cementerios-radiactivos-ante-la-falta-de-un-almacen-centralizado.html
“Con Garoña parada, el riesgo es infinitamente menor que cuando estaba en funcionamiento.”
by Toni Caballero pub at El Correo 2022 April,22
https://www.elcorreo.com/miranda/garona-parada-riesgo-20220422230849-nt.html
“La multa que Francia cobra a España desde 2017 por guardar sus residuos nucleares ya supera los 110 millones.”
by Antonio M. Vélez pub at El Diario, 2021 June,29.
https://www.eldiario.es/economia/multa-francia-cobra-espana-guardar-residuos-nucleares-supera-110-millones_1_8087336.html
“España paga 50 millones a Reino Unido para que se quede el plutonio de Garoña”
by Santiago Carcar pub at La Información, 2017 September,22
https://www.lainformacion.com/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/Garona-Nucleares-residuos-plutonio_0_1065194146.html/
“Vandellós I, cuando España pudo vivir su propio Chernóbil”
by María del Mar González pub at La Sexta 2022 April,26
https://www.lasexta.com/noticias/nacional/vandellos-cuando-espana-pudo-vivir-propio-chernobil_202204266267d70d2dc8df00019109af.html
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Apparently, Derek Lowe has become a Chinese gov’t asset. Not really a surprise as most science elites dont want to offend the Chinese. I guess I thought Derek would show more backbone, but alas.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/origins-pandemic
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