Tag: science

How Universities Cover Up Scientific Fraud

One in fifty scientists fakes research by fabricating or falsifying data. They make off with government grant money, which they share with their universities, and their made-up findings guide medical practice, public policy and ordinary people’s decisions about things like whether or not to vaccinate their children. The fraudulent science we know about has caused thousands of deaths and wasted millions in taxpayer dollars. That is only scratching the surface, however—because most fraudsters are never caught. As Ivan Oransky notes in Gaming the Metrics, “the most common outcome for those who commit fraud is: a long career.”

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Scientists splice human genes into monkey brains to make them bigger, smarter

What could go wrong?

Scientists made monkey brains double in size by splicing them with human genes in a “Planet of the Apes”-style experiment.

During the study, Japanese and German researchers injected a gene called ARHGAP11B — which directs stem cells in the human brain — into the dark matter of marmoset fetuses, according to a release about the research.

They found that the primates’ brains soon became more human-like by developing larger, more advanced neocortexes — the area that controls cognition and language, according to the study published in the journal Science in June.

According to images released by the researchers, the modified monkey brains nearly doubled in size at around 100 days into gestation.

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