Does Cloning Poison Everyone it Touches?

I mean this only half facetiously: Apparently there has been another cloning scandal, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education (no link available). An unpublished study had claimed to have obtain embryonic stem cells from cloned monkey embryos. Not so, apparently: “An investigation by the National Institutes of Health has determined that Jong Hyuk Park falsified data while working at the University of Pittsburgh to clone rhesus monkey embryos.

“Mr. Park was a postdoctoral fellow at Pittsburgh from August 2004 through February 2006 in the laboratory of Gerald P. Schatten, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, as well as of cell biology and physiology. During that time, Mr. Park prepared a paper for submission to the journal Nature on generating embryonic stem cells from cloned monkey cells—a feat not yet accomplished by other labs.

“The NIH’s Office of Research Integrity has determined that Mr. Park fabricated two figures for that paper, lied to his colleagues at Pittsburgh about the figures, and falsified records in an attempt to hide his deception. The notice of the NIH’s findings appeared on Tuesday in the Federal Register.”

Perhaps it’s the money at stake. Perhaps it is the desire for acclamation by peers. But corruption in science has become a real problem—which runs the gamut from hype, redefining terms for political reasons rather than scientific, and outright fraud.