Engineering Ethics

Chapter 10

2002: Bell Laboratories

Scientific Fraud

119

THE REPORTED STORY

The New York Times Abstract:

Investigation committee finds series of extraordinary advances in physics

claimed by scientists at Bell Labs relied on fraudulent data; findings dismiss as

fiction results from 17 papers that were promoted as major breakthrough in

physics, including claims that Bell Labs had created molecular-scale transis-

tors; committee concludes that data in disputed research, published between

1998 and 2001, was improperly manipulated, even fabricated; this confirms

suspicions raised by outside scientists in May; committee places blame for

deceit on Bell Lab scientist Dr J Hendrik Schon; Bell Labs immediately fires

Schon; just last year he was thought to be on fast path to Nobel Prize; panel

finds no other scientists were guilty of misconduct, but scandal has tarnished

surrounding participants, including co-authors who noticed nothing amiss,

scientific journals that quickly published sensational findings, and Lucent

Technologies, Bell Labs’ parent company; case raises questions about core of

scientific process. (Chang, 2002)

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