asmoron Hacker News • Recommends
On “‘A very disturbing picture’: another retraction for controversial physicist”
Schön got away with it for years. One of my favorite video essays is a long exploration of that case: link to this video
0:00 / 0:00
#belllabs#janhendrikschön#scientificfraud
The man who almost faked his way to a Nobel Prize
BobbyBroccoli
814K subscribers • 2 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 6 people: 6 on Hacker News.
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
4.1M views6 years ago6 recommendations
History and cultureHardwareHistory of computingElectronics
BobbyBroccoli details the rise and fall of Jan Hendrik Schön, a Bell Labs postdoc who fabricated organic semiconductor research.
In the year 2000, an unknown German postdoc set the world of physics on fire. This is the rise of Jan Hendrik Schön. Part 1 of 3. Part 2: youtu.be/Riio1eKOSKg Part 3: youtu.be/KsSuhP60qnI My twitter : twitter.com/bobbybroccole My Patreon: patreon.com/bobbybroccoli All music used is from the Youtube Audio Library (credits at the very end of the video). Follow me on Twitter: @ bobbybroccole Intro Chapter 1 - Stockholm Chapter 2 - Profile of a Winner Chapter 3 - Bell Labs Chapter 4 - The End of Moore's Law Chapter 5 - The Future is Plastic Chapter 6 - Publish or Perish Chapter 7 - Welcome to the Club Jan Hendrik Schön, the Bell Labs Fraud. Plastic Fantastic. Bertram Batlogg. Schön affair, Schön scandal. Nobel Prize fraud.Why it's here
6 people recommend thisWhat people say. Recommended as an engrossing documentary on scientific fraud and the institutional incentives that enabled it at Bell Labs.
treescienceboton Hacker News • Recommends
On “Room Temperature Superconductor Drama and Hope”
This reminds me an amazing piece of documentary1 I've watched a couple months prior about a man who tried to "scam his way onto a Nobel prize". It really goes into showing how the majority of the system is based on trust and reputation and without well skepticism fraudsters can thrive. 1: "The man who almost faked his way to a Nobel Prize" -- link to this video
atrettelon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Stanford Data Science Handbook”
For those unfamiliar with the story of Jan Hendrik Schön, I suggest watching this excellent series of videos by BobbyBroccoli on YouTube 1-3. The series does a good job breaking down the context and the situation that Schön was in, along with the incentives that encouraged Schön to commit fraud. 1 link to this video 2 link 3 link
jhallenworldon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online”
>Most research is flawed or useless, Also the research could be downright fraudulent. A very interesting case is the Schön scandal, involving organic semiconductors. link There is an engrossing set of videos about it: link to this video
mustacheemperoron Hacker News • Recommends
On “Allegations of Scientific Misconduct Mount as Physicist Makes His Biggest Claim”
It reminds me of Jan Hendrik Schön, who looked like physics' next emerging all-star wunderkind until his "discoveries" of crystalline semiconductors won him so many awards and attentions it was discovered his entire career had been built on falsified data. A huge embarassment for Bell Labs and a black mark on the final years of more than one great physicist's careers there, since so many people thought they were helping a great new mind succeed when they were in reality perpetuating his fraud. There's a great 3-part documentary on youtube about it, which argues Schön was probably a contender for the Nobel Prize in Physics before everything collapsed: link to this video
lucubratoryon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Origin of correlated isolated flat bands in LK99”
Oh yeah, he is absolutely fucking wild. There's a great documentary on him, here's part one, the other two parts of the documentary are also on YouTube on the same channel: link to this video
raszon Hacker News • Mentions
On “The first high-yield, sub-penny plastic processor”
My mind immediately went to Bell Labs Jan Schön superconducting plastics almost landing him a Nobel link to this video (spoiler alert - it was all a scam)
bjourneon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Harvard ethics prof fabricated multiple behavioral science studies”
Fabricated data and fraudulent results are not unknown to the hard sciences either. See f.e link to this video A professor manipulating data for an amusing pop-psychology result is small potatoes in comparison to what has rocked the physics world.
dotnet00on Hacker News • Mentions
On “Stanford president resigns over manipulated research, will retract 3 papers”
…ientists were essentially unharmed, while the PhDs and postdocs suddenly found themselves unable to list most of their experience on their CV, despite the established scientists being the most qualified to verify the fraudster's work. Especially for someone in a leadership position at a university, I wonder how that doesn't eat them up inside. 1 link to this video…