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False Prophets - by Alexander Kohn

Book Review, © Copyright 1997, Jim Loy

This book is subtitled, "Fraud and Error in Science and Medicine." And, it is a fascinating book.

• Chapter 1 - Making and Breaking the Rules of Science
• Chapter 2 - Experimenter Effects (errors due to wishful thinking)
• Chapter 3 - Error or Self-Deception?
  • N-rays - discovered by René Blondlot, these never existed.
  • Davis & Barnes Effect - an experiment, later discredited.
  • Allison Effect - discredited.
  • Mitogenic Rays - discovered by Alexander Gurwitch, and never existed.
  • Polywater - discovered by N. N. Fedyakin in 1962, was the result of impurities.
  • Scotophobin - a polypeptide (associated with learning) which didn't exist.
• Chapter 4 - In the Shadow of Doubt
  • Ptolemy - 1800 years after he died, accused and cleared of fraud.
  • Newton - seems to have fudged his data.
  • Mendel - data was too accurate, he or his assistant probably fudged.
  • Kammerer - committed suicide after falsifying data.
  • Carrel - experiments which were discredited.
  • Burt - "studied" inherited attributes of twins, data was completely made up, and is still quoted.
  • Milliken - won Nobel prize in physics, but his measurements were way off, and reported only selected data.
• Chapter 5 - Lysenko - Science and Politics (the strange case of Lysenko's false theories, which were supported by the Soviet government)
• Chapter 6 - Documented Cheating in Clinical Research
  • Summerlin Affair - fraudulent transplant experiments.
  • John Darsee - fraudulent cardiology experiments.
  • Dr. Vijay Soman - fraudulent data and plagiarized paper.
  • Dr. John Long - fraudulent Hodgkin's disease data.
• Chapter 7 - Documented Cheating in Basic Research
  • Mark Spector - fraudulent cancer experiments.
  • Dr. Zoltan Lucas - fraudulent transplant experiments.
  • Hasko Paradies - fraudulent RNA research.
  • D. Robert J. Gullis - made up data.
  • Dr. J. Purves - made up data.
  • Dr. Joseph Cort - made up data, to get grant money.
• Chapter 8 - Criticism or Slander?
  • Margaret Mead - improved research standards, but probably was misled by Samoan girls. [maybe not]
  • Swaminathan - accused of misconduct, because he was slow to correct his errors.
  • Dr. Karl Illmensee - accused by unethical press, but never convicted of misconduct.
  • Mark and Linda Sobell - falsely accused of fraudulent alcoholism research.
  • Paul Furcinitti and Paul Todd - accused of wrong-doing, only guilty of error in judgment.
  • William E. Wheeler - may have been innocent, even though he admitted irregularities in research.
• Chapter 9 - Forgeries in Paleontology and Archaeology
  • Piltdown Hoax - famous fossil hoax
  • Archaeopterix - some people suggest that these fossils may have been a hoax.
  • other hoaxes.
• Chapter 10 - Plagiarism or Piracy?
  • Elias A. Alsabti - plagiarized papers.
  • various topics, including quoting nonexistent papers.
• Chapter 11 - How Honest Are Grant Applications?
• Chapter 12 - Other Ethical Problems in Science
• Chapter 13 - How Safe Are Our Drugs? (tells the Thalidomide story)
• Chapter 14 - The Pursuit of Honesty
• Chapter 15 - What Can Be Done About Fraud in Science?
  • Blowing the Whistle.
  • Prevention.

A similar book is Betrayers of the Truth (Fraud and deceit in the halls of science) by William Broad and Nicholas Wade. This book maintains a fairly hostile tone, with some reason. Their idea is that fraud is rampant in science, and that scientists are not doing much about it. Scientists, on the other hand, say that science is a self-correcting process and that fraud is eventually found out automatically. They are both right. Fraud will not survive. Sooner or later, all false results (fraudulent or otherwise) are corrected. So fraud does not affect the march of scientific knowledge, much. Some cases of fraud are surprisingly persistent (fraudulent results sometimes stay in the literature), but in general, scientific authors ignore old published errors. But fraud does effect the money aspect (grants) of science, big time. And scientists are amazingly naive about this aspect of scientific fraud. Certainly science will correct the erroneous results, but fraud helps a few people get their hands on millions of dollars, all the time. Science is no different from other users of government money, in this respect. And scientists should admit that, and do something about it.

False Prophets - by Alexander Kohn is out of print. To attempt to order this book anyway, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book). To order Betrayers of the Truth by William Broad and Nicholas Wade, click Amazon.com.

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