Pride Goeth Before the Fall
I must confess to feeling a certain amount of very un-Christian Schadenfreude over this story: Scientist Faked Stem Cell Study, Associate Says*. Not only was Dr. Hwang's research unethical, it turns out that it was fake!
The news broke last night while I was at the campus bar of the science and technology university for which I work. The students were watching with rapt attention as the story unfolded. Dr. Hwang was a hero to many of the younger students. There was a mythic story of how the young Hwang and his friends made a pact never to sleep in a bed as high school students, but rather fall alseep at their desks while studying late into the night. Graduate students who knew a bit more about science tended to have many doubts about the viability, if not the ethics, of Dr. Hwang's research.
The mindless nationalistic fervor that shut down a TV show that dared question Dr. Hwang's research and promted death threats to reporters who did the same was one of the ugliest episodes I have witnessed in eight years of living in Korea. Korea's conservative dailies attacked anyone opposed to Dr. Hwang. Most of the criticism of Dr. Hwang came from the Left.
The K-bloggers, as one might expect, are all over this story: NEWS FLASH!! Hwang faked the stem cells, BREAKING NEWS: Hwang faked stem cells, Korean Scientists Admits to Faking Stem Cell Research, and I guess the Nobel Prize is out for sure.
[Image from Yahoo! News Photo]
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I must confess to feeling a certain amount of very un-Christian Schadenfreude over this story: Scientist Faked Stem Cell Study, Associate Says*. Not only was Dr. Hwang's research unethical, it turns out that it was fake! The news broke last night while I was at the campus bar of the science and technology university for which I work. The students were watching with rapt attention as the story unfolded. Dr. Hwang was a hero to many of the younger students. There was a mythic story of how the young Hwang and his friends made a pact never to sleep in a bed as high school students, but rather fall alseep at their desks while studying late into the night. Graduate students who knew a bit more about science tended to have many doubts about the viability, if not the ethics, of Dr. Hwang's research.
The mindless nationalistic fervor that shut down a TV show that dared question Dr. Hwang's research and promted death threats to reporters who did the same was one of the ugliest episodes I have witnessed in eight years of living in Korea. Korea's conservative dailies attacked anyone opposed to Dr. Hwang. Most of the criticism of Dr. Hwang came from the Left.
The K-bloggers, as one might expect, are all over this story: NEWS FLASH!! Hwang faked the stem cells, BREAKING NEWS: Hwang faked stem cells, Korean Scientists Admits to Faking Stem Cell Research, and I guess the Nobel Prize is out for sure.
[Image from Yahoo! News Photo]
*Use BugMeNot.com to bypass registration.
Redeemed by Our Savior, I work out my salvation with fear and trembling in Pohang, South Korea, where I live with my wife, daughter, and son and teach English at a science and technology university. Baptized a Methodist and raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran in Buffalo, NY, I spent six years as a guest of the Anglican Communion before being received by the Grace of God into the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the Feast of Saint Andrew, my patron, anno domini 2002.
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