The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is seeking to retract six scientific studies and correct 31 others that were published by the institute’s top researchers, including its CEO. The researchers are accused of manipulating data images with simple methods, primarily with copy-and-paste in image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop.
I feel the value of negative results is underrated by the scientific community. So they tested one or more hypotheses and achieved negative results. Now the next research team knows what not to do or what to do differently next time.
It’s all knowledge and it’s typically all useful in some way, but society, especially American society, is hyperfocused on achieving results that lend themselves to a marketable product, not the betterment of the quality of life of our species.
Disclaimer: I’m biased as my thesis was one giant dud.