Ivory Tower Crime

Then what constitutes scientific misconduct? According to Dr. Clyde Watkins of Office of Research Integrity, the official government definition was fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. We flunked his test. Of three words we used to characterize a major scientific crime, only one was on his list, and we used it out of order. Therefore, he dismissed our appeal for a hearing. Since then, the Ryan Commission has compounded the problem by redefining misconduct as misappropriation, interference, and misrepresentation. Now, ORI has six words they can Babelize to block the public from hearing the truth about misconduct in science.

In reality, we did not get a hearing because our case incriminated U.S. Public Health Service officials, and Office of Research Integrity would do anything in their power to protect them, including a sophomoric juggling of words.

The clumsy deceptions used by USPHS to obstruct justice are more frightening than the crimes they committed to begin with. You can pick up this labyrinthine trail of deceit by visiting Babel-by-Bethesda, or you can find out how greed turned two exciting discoveries into disaster from Our Story. Both paths descend into festering moats of fraud, fabricated in the ivory towers of American medical science.

Readers seeking a brief account of this affair can find it in our Summary. Those who would like an overview by a distinguished scientist and exemplar of honor can read it in a letter by Chapman Binford to AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROBIOLOGY NEWS.

Students of biomedical ethics and critics of the peer review system can find detailed accounts of major transgressions in our Plea to Congressman Dingell. Activists who think research on AIDS and cancer is being bogged down by professional infighting can find evidence for this in AIDS, Apes, and Armadillos.

This web site is the culmination of a twenty five year effort to expose a shameful episode in the history of medicine. We hope it will promote long needed reforms in U.S. Public Health Service.