FALSIFICATION, FABRICATION AND PLAGIARISM OF RESEARCH HAVE FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES LAKSHMY RAMAKRISHNAN
THE MILLION-dollar question that universities ask almost all Ph.D. candidates is, “Why do you want to pursue a research career in biological sciences?” The answer almost always is, “For the betterment of science.” But is this really true? Stepping inside research laboratories and institutions, one can easily get the clear picture of this falsifiable statement. In many cases, scientific results are often skewed for favorable outcomes. The misconduct has far-reaching consequences and ultimately it is the patient who has to pay the price. The observation is certainly not to mitigate the importance of modern science, but many of the present day maladies can be managed more easily if handled with honesty.
This story is from the July 16, 2019 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 16, 2019 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
The young leaves of pilkhan free are a worthy alternative to leafy vegetables in the spring season
The pill that's roiling US drug regulation
The hard right is challenging FDA's authority to regulate drugs with its lawsuit to ban America's most used abortion pill
FAIR PRICE
Using a calculator, Uttar Pradesh scientifically fixes fee for transporting faecal sludge to treatment plants
THE FOREVER POLLUTANT
From production to usage to disposal, plastic is a threat to those who come in its contact SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH
Seeds from the past
For a decade,200 villages in Odisha have conserved and grown 190 indigenous rice and millet varieties with proven climate resilience
TESTING TIMES
While the world is trying to identify uniform tests to measure soil biodiversity, it still needs investment and infrastructure to make them available to all
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Soil health is typically measured by its nutrient content, by presence of elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. No country in the world measures it in terms of soil biodiversity-a counting of underground faunal populations and microorganisms.
PRIME TRIGGER
Heat stress dominates debate on the causes of a mysterious chronic kidney disease that continues to baffle health experts and is on the rise globally
Coral catastrophe
Consistent ocean heating puts global corals at risk of mass bleaching in 2024
CHIPKO A DISTANT MEMORY
Whenever a dictionary of green terms is written, no matter in what language, it will contain at least one Hindi word-Chipko, which means to hug.