Fake stem cells: Science works

"A doctor who provided human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said in a broadcast Thursday that the South Korean scientist agreed to withdraw a key research paper because most of the stem cells produced for the article were faked. Roh Sung-il, chairman of the board at Mizmedi Hospital, told KBS television that Hwang had agreed to ask the journal Science to withdraw the paper, published in June to international acclaim. Roh was one of the co-authors of the article that detailed how individual stem cell colonies were created for 11 patients through cloning."

And then:

"This is something I shouldn't have done," said the researcher, who was identified only by his last name, Kim, and whose face was not shown. "I had no choice but to do it."

So, Hwang faked his work. He published his so-called findings in Science to great acclaim. Rumors of a Nobel prized swirled. In the end, it was phony. The results were fake, plain and simple.

But...

Science worked. The claims were wrong but they were uncovered through the honesty of others who felt guilt for what they did. Yes, the wrongs should have never been done, but they were. Now, the guilty are admitting to it. That's a system that's working.

If you think I'm too optimistic ask yourself this: If this were a phony political claim, would we see people coming clean? I don't think so.