Biology 1st Edition by Jerome Krueger, Kendra Hill, Robert Noyd

Exercise 10

In 2005, a South Korean scientist, Woo-suk Hwang, reported that he made immortal stem cells from 11 human patients. His research was hailed as a breakthrough for people affected by currently incurable degenerative diseases, because such stem cells might be used to repair a person's own damaged tissues. Hwang published his results in a respected scientific journal. In 2006, the journal retracted his paper after other scientists discovered that Hwang and his colleagues had faked their results. Some people think this incident shows that scientists are not telling the truth about the natural world. However, others think that the incident helps confirm the usefulness of a scientific approach, because other scientists quickly discovered and exposed the fraud. What do you think?