Exclusive: official investigation reveals how superconductivity physicist faked blockbuster results
Exclusive: official investigation reveals how superconductivity physicist faked blockbuster results
The confidential 124-page report from the University of Rochester, disclosed in a lawsuit, details the extent of Ranga Dias’s scientific misconduct.
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What would motivate someone to do something like this? I don't get it. He had to know he'd be found out eventually when the magic superconductors didn't work.
It's because writing research grants, getting them approved, and publishing papers on that research has become more about getting the money and less about producing quality results.
But now he will never get money again...?
Change name or use pseudonym, rinse and repeat.
Sure, because there are millions in that field and nobody will remember him? This is a niche, extremely specific science field. They all know each other at a certain level.
Money and grants don't come from your peers, unless there's a physics gofundme I don't know about.
but don’t grants get reviewed by peers?
Won't he need to get a fake indentity and then a degree and stuff under that identity?
I can't watch something with sound right now, but even if he got some money out of it, wouldn't it be less than he loses by ruining his entire career and reputation? I wouldn't even hire someone who did that as a cashier. I'd expect them to steal from the register or something.
The harder it is to reproduce the experiment the less likely you are to be caught, and in the meantime you get paid to live your dream job as a world renowned scientist. It's the whole "fake it til you make it" scheme ever-present in every field.
So you mean a lot of people who do this take a lot longer to get caught? That makes more sense. Still seems pretty shortsighted.
Not really, they get caught within a few years usually. It just takes a much shorter amount of time to get caught for a simple experiment than a more complicated one.