Seoul National University is putting the nails into the coffin of Hwang Woo-suk, formerly South Korea’s most renowned scientist and cloning researcher, saying that he personally fabricated results. The Marmot is running with the story here.:
A panel from South Korea’s top university investigating the veracity of the country’s cloning pioneer’s past study said Friday stem cell expert Hwang Woo-suk fabricated the results of his human stem cell research, calling it "damaging to the foundation of science."
The internal panel of Seoul National University (SNU) issued an interim report saying he produced two stem cell lines and used them to claim the production of 11 stem cell lines.
The report, announced in a press conference, said, "Hwang’s team had reported it had 11 patient-tailored stem cell lines but there were only two such stem cell lines on March 15 when it submitted its paper to the journal Science."
The panel launched its investigation Monday on the authenticity scandal surrounding the country’s landmark stem cell research by Hwang which emerged last month.
It’s damn certain that his career is over, the question remains how much longer he will be with this world. As Kushibo, Jeff, sickboy and others have noted, this sort of scandal typically ends in suicide.
AsiaPundit is now accepting bets on the likely date and time of Hwang’s demise. The person with the closest guess will receive a year’s free subscription to AsiaPundit including all premium content.*
That said, while suicide may be a traditional Korean way to react to a career-crippling scandal, AsiaPundit hopes Hwang can start fresh.
AsiaPundit recommends that Hwang follow in the Anglo-American footsteps of Nick Leeson or Michael Brown and start a consulting business on bio-ethics.
(*Offer may be voided by Internet censorship)
Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, hwang woo suk, korea, northeast asia, south korea
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:21 pm
Quote: “AsiaPundit is now accepting bets on the likely date and time of Hwang’s demise. The person with the closest guess will receive a year’s free subscription to AsiaPundit including all premium content.*”
I’m as glad as the next guy to see this snake oil salesman get his own, but your suicide comments are just plain out of bounds. Show at least a ‘bit’ of humanity for fuck sakes.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:52 pm
Daehanmigug, as I said I do not want to see Hwang’s demise, nor for that matter am I relishing in his disgrace. Given that his ‘research’ raised the hopes of many it’s gravely disappointing that there was fraud. While I agree that he should be severely penalized for this, there’s no schadenfreund here.
That said, given the amount of speculation on his fate, the possibility of suicide does bear mentioning.
December 23rd, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Gotcha on the first paragraph but bear mentioning is a far cry from accepting bets on, yes?
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:16 pm
Aha, point taken. But, err, I was just being flippant, I had thought the offer of free access and ‘premium content’ to the winner would have indicated that.
But if you’re interested I can offer you a free RSS subscription as my apology for the misunderstanding.
December 30th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
Please forgive me if I speak up where I just dropped in, minutes ago. I really can’t think it outrageous to make Hwang woo-suk the object of a — maybe coarse — joke. He didn’t feed his ego just on his country’s desire to become a leading nation in science, but on the hopes of countless people who are suffering from very severe diseases. It’s cheating on their hopes which makes his case so utterly despicable.
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Just found this on
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122200986.html
“Unfortunately, the damage Hwang did can’t be undone,” said Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., a company that had been racing to make the first customized stem cells but found its venture capital cut off when the Korean team announced its success. “It can’t be undone for us, and it can’t be undone for the thousands of people who may die in the future because this research has been unnecessarily held up while [Hwang] played his games and traveled around the world like a rock star.”
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There’s no need to feel any Schadenfreude because of the detection of a new scandalous fraud in science (after all, I dare say there are far more of them, everywhere, than we will ever learn of). But there’s a lot of reason for Galgenhumor, (which means making a joke just before one’s going to be hanged), and from the point of view of those who will suffer most from that greedy sociopath’s fraud, I think such jokes a rather appropriate — and harmless — retribution. The only idea I’d object to is that this man will commit suicide. I bet he clings as much to life as all of those whose hopes he has deceived.