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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/20/2006 : 18:53:51
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Hwang Woo-suk, the Korean scientist who was recently a national hero on top of the world, is now on trial.
quote:
Cloning scientist denies fake data
Fraud trial of Hwang Woo-suk gets underway in Seoul
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Posted: 7:39 a.m. EDT (11:39 GMT)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Disgraced scientist denied faking data for a key academic paper at the start of a fraud trial Tuesday in the scandal over his now-discredited claims of trailblazing progress in the cloning of stem cells.
"I was not involved in the process, I just received results," Hwang told a Seoul court in response to questions about an article published in 2004.
If the accusations of falsified research are true, he said "it means my whole research team conspired to deceive me but I still don't believe this is the case."
"I fully trusted (my colleagues) without doubts, but it was clearly my mistake to approve the results," said Hwang, during testimony where he appeared confident and assertive.
Hwang was indicted last month for allegedly accepting 2 billion won (US$2.1 million) in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research and embezzling about 800 million won (US$831,000) in private and government research funds.
Hwang also was accused of buying human eggs for research, a violation of the country's bioethics law.
If convicted, the 52-year-old scientist faces at least three years in prison. Hwang is being tried along with five colleagues who face similar charges.
Before the trial's start at Seoul Central District Court, Hwang's supporters gathered outside and shouted, "We'll protect you until the end!" During Hwang's testimony the supporters, who formed much of the courtroom audience, occasionally applauded in support.
Researcher Kim Sun-jong -- who was indicted for tampering with research data, and whom Hwang has accused of deceiving him with fake results -- said in court Tuesday he was "under serious pressure" to show Hwang he had produced cloned stem cells, leading him to fake the evidence.
Kim said Hwang was unaware of his misdeeds.
Claims in Hwang's articles published in 2004 and 2005 to international acclaim started unraveling with media reports late last year about ethics violations, and snowballed into his eventual admission that the evidence supporting his research was fabricated.
Hwang was fired in March as a professor at Seoul National University.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2006 : 00:47:00 [Permalink]
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Oh, puh-leaze.
quote:
"I was not involved in the process, I just received results," Hwang told a Seoul court in response to questions about an article published in 2004.
Right. And ran the lab, and brought in the money, and had his name on every paper from the lab as the senior researcher, and became famous, and was on the cover of magazines, and took the credit when the going was good. You'd think that after the nth press conference or media interview, with reporters (and colleagues from other research labs) saying things like, "This is incredible! How do you do it? No one else gets results anywhere as good as yours" the reasonable head-of-research-lab would start to wonder why his labs good were so out-of-line with everyone else's (unless he already had some clue). Even if he was very hands-off with the actual science in the lab, the conduct of research in the lab was his responsibility.
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If the accusations of falsified research are true, he said "it means my whole research team conspired to deceive me but I still don't believe this is the case."
He sounds seriously out of touch, maybe so taken with being a celebrity that he hounded them for fabulous results & never checked on how they were getting them...or he's calculating & cool and he knew what was going on.
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"I fully trusted (my colleagues) without doubts, but it was clearly my mistake to approve the results," said Hwang, during testimony where he appeared confident and assertive.
Prediction on second career (after prison): car salesman. (No offense intended to any car salesmen who may be reading this.)
quote:
Hwang was indicted last month for allegedly accepting 2 billion won (US$2.1 million) in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research and embezzling about 800 million won (US$831,000) in private and government research funds.
Yep, sounds like he was the victim of conspiracy by every one of his labworkers. Also, those donors who forced money on him, even though he tried to refuse. (Is it cynical or realistic to think that money is the root of so many of these cases? He would have done well at Enron.)
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Hwang also was accused of buying human eggs for research, a violation of the country's bioethics law.
Another example of how his lab workers pulled the wool over his eyes, I presume?
quote:
Researcher Kim Sun-jong -- who was indicted for tampering with research data, and whom Hwang has accused of deceiving him with fake results -- said in court Tuesday he was "under serious pressure" to show Hwang he had produced cloned stem cells, leading him to fake the evidence.
Can anyone shed light on whether Korean culture might have contributed to the likelihood that a lab researcher under pressure might have faked results instead of telling his boss the experiments weren't successful?
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Kim said Hwang was unaware of his misdeeds.
Maybe, maybe not. It's always good to make sure you have a fall guy. Whether or not he's taking the fall willingly. |
I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney
*some restrictions may apply |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2006 : 05:49:10 [Permalink]
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Zebra, you've had the same thoughts that I had about Hwang. Clearly, it seems, the corrupt leader is willing to blame the people he hired and managed, who helped him get rich, when things fall apart. Reminds me of Enron's top execs, and President Bush, as well. The opposite of Harry Truman's "The Buck Stops Here" approach. I can imagine Hwang, just before the fraud was exposed, might have told one one his researchers, "Parkie, you've done a heck-ova job!" Now, it's, "Park who?"
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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