The Marmot’s Hole

UPDATE 3: You don’t say…

A Korean Press Foundation report seems to indicate that Korea’s coverage of science news is too nationalistic:

The report, carried out by the Korean Press Foundation, found that 75.4 percent of news stories on scientific achievements on major television networks were about discoveries by Koreans.

The results were based on an analysis of 69 news pieces collected from September to November that were broadcast on nightly news programs by MBC, SBS and KBS.

Newspapers weren’t blameless, either:

The report also compared newspaper articles about scientific discoveries from three dailies _ Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo and Hankyoreh _ and found that they introduced more achievements by foreign scientists (57.8 percent) than local ones (34.4 percent).

However, among the stories about the achievements of local scientists, 68 percent stressed the nationality of the researcher in their first paragraphs or headlines.

I’ll be damned.

A second chance for Hwang?

The fact that anyone is even talking about giving Hwang a second chance indicates something is seriously wrong.

UPDATE 2: Hwang cloned wolves.  Or so his peeps say.

Dude, this man has issues.  I missed this, but the Chosun Ilbo is reporting that Hwang said at the press conference that he cloned a hard-to-clone animal, and that he’s submitted his results to a major international journal and is awaiting approval.  An source close to Hwang said the animal was a wolf, and that he cloned not one, but two!  When asked to show the public the animals, the source said to wait, since the journal might reject Hwang’s paper if he revealed the animals prior to getting his thesis approved.

UPDATE 1: The Lost Nomad probably says it best:

This man just refuses to give up and go away so I have to think that either he’s a pathological liar who believes everything he’s saying or he’s got the biggest balls in South Korea.

Original Post: Hwang’s press conference

It’s official–veterinarian Hwang Woo-suk is a scumbag.  In a press conference today, Hwang apologized to the nation, while at the same time blaming two junior researchers and MizMedi Hospital for the scandal.  Here’s the text of his press conference, from NoCut News (in Korean).

He also said that as long as he got the eggs, he believed his team could produce patient-tailored stem cells within six months, although he added the task would be easier if he collaborated with local and international experts.  No word yet on what Hwang was smoking before talking to the press.

Korean scientists feeling the Hwang Woo-suk backlash?

Stem cell expert Outi Hovatta of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, refusing an invitation to attend a stem cell research conference in Seoul, said in an email to a researcher at Pochon Cha University’s College of Medicine that he was "not allowed to contact any Korean scientists" (from the Maeil Gyeongje).  SNU College of Medicine professor Park Sang-cheol said major international journals are showing Korean scientists a degree of skepticism bordering on the offensive.  The journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has apparently requested that a Korean scientist whose thesis had already been tabbed for publication send in copies of his experiment notes.  He also said that when papers are refused for publication, it’s customary to hear the reason why, but recently, there have been instances of Korean scientists having their papers turned down for publication without any reason given.  This, he said, was evidence that the journals were turning the papers down without even reading them.

Schatten Watch

Nature examines the questions surrounding Schatten and the patent controversy.

Stem cells ain’t like cars or chips

The NYT ran an excellent piece of analysis on Hwanggate.  Just to cite the intro:

The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday.

Before and after

Hey, where did my Stem Cell Hub go?

Criminal investigation

Investigators rather unceremoniously raided Hwang’s home and office (and those of other figures connected with this scam), helping themselves to all sort of goodies like files and laptop computers.  Prosecutors are keen to learn how some Hwang and company spent some 1.9 billion of 3.3 billion won (about 3 million U.S. dollars) in private and corporate contributions they received.  There are suspicions that they spent some 600 million won in November alone, when questions about the legitimacy of their research first surfaced.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), meanwhile, intends to audit how some 8.4 billion of 11.3 billion won in government support was spent.  Hwang and team will be asked to return funds used for purposes other than research.

Personally, I find suspicions that the National Intelligence Service played the role of Hwang Woo-suk bagman to be the most interesting.  Hwang seems intent on dragging this fiasco out for as long as humanly possible, and when it’s all done, a lot of folk are going down with him.

To add insult to injury

The Ministry of Education is removing interviews with Hwang from middle and high school textbooks.