Top Science Scandals of 2011

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In a Rare Move, Science Without Authors' Consent Retracts Paper That Tied Mouse Virus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
by Jon Cohen on 22 December 2011

After enduring more than 2 years of criticism that included evidence of contamination and misrepresentation of data, a Science paper that linked a mouse retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) today received its last rites: Editor-in-Chief Bruce Alberts issued a full retraction. The study's 13 authors in September signed a partial retraction after one of the three collaborating labs found that a contamination had marred its contribution, but they could not agree on the wording of the full retraction, so Alberts issued it without their approval. "Science has lost confidence in the Report and the validity of its conclusions," wrote Alberts in a rare "editorial" retraction, which appears in the 23 December issue of Science. "It is Science's opinion that a retraction signed by all the authors is unlikely to be forthcoming."

Scientists are human too, and some let greed, prestige, and power lead their judgement. What I've always loved about science is that it is self-correcting - no amount of fraud will ever stand the test of time and multiple people working on the same subject.

I'm surprised that they haven't chosen the flu virus controversy.

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Scientists Brace for Media Storm Around Controversial Flu Studies
by Martin Enserink on 23 November 2011

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS—Locked up in the bowels of the medical faculty building here and accessible to only a handful of scientists lies a man-made flu virus that could change world history if it were ever set free.

The virus is an H5N1 avian influenza strain that has been genetically altered and is now easily transmissible between ferrets, the animals that most closely mimic the human response to flu. Scientists believe it's likely that the pathogen, if it emerged in nature or were released, would trigger an influenza pandemic, quite possibly with many millions of deaths.

In a 17th floor office in the same building, virologist Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center calmly explains why his team created what he says is "probably one of the most dangerous viruses you can make"—and why he wants to publish a paper describing how they did it. Fouchier is also bracing for a media storm. Fouchier's paper is one of two studies that have triggered an intense debate about the limits of scientific freedom and that could portend changes in the way U.S. researchers handle so-called dual-use research: studies that have a potential public health benefit but could also be useful for nefarious purposes like biowarfare or bioterrorism.

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?i...t-influenza-pandemic
What Will the Next Influenza Pandemic Look Like?
Predicting pandemics might still be impossible, but with millions of lives at stake, researchers are using the latest science and lessons from history to best prepare for the next big one
By Katherine Harmon | September 19, 2011

Could the dreaded H5N1 ever morph into a disease that could spread among people, via a cough or sneeze, to attach to nasal or tracheal membranes, as the seasonal flu does every year?

To help answer this question, Ron Fouchier, also of Erasmus Medical Center, and his team "mutated the hell out of H5N1" and looked at how readily it would bind with cells in the respiratory tract. What they found is that with as few as five single mutations it gained the ability to latch onto cells in the nasal and tracheal passageways, which, Fouchier added as understated emphasis, "seemed to be very bad news."

It wasn't until "someone finally convinced me to do something really, really stupid," Fouchier said, that they observed the deadly H5N1 become a viable aerosol virus. The lesson from these admittedly high-risk experiments is that "the H5N1 virus can become airborne," Fouchier concluded—and that "re-assortment with mammalian viruses is not needed" for it to evolve to spread through the air.

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Grudgingly, Virologists Agree to Redact Details in Sensitive Flu Papers
by Martin Enserink on 20 December 2011