The mess that presently exists in science
Trofim Lysenko (on the left), preaching to Stalin as he destroyed
Soviet plant research by persecuting anyone who disagreed with him,
and caused famines that killed millions.
Two stories today in the peer-review journal Science illustrate bluntly the dry rot that has seeped into the entire peer-review scientific community, much of it caused by the politics and incompetence that always follows when too much government money is available to hand out.
In the first story, Science simply provided a horrifying overall summary of the misconduct and research fakery committed by Eliezer Masliah, who as head of the the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute of Aging (NIA) beginning in 2016 was crucial in recommending who would get major grants for doing research into diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Masliah’s own published peer-reviewed research into Alzheimer’s helped guide him in awarding grants. His work had said that proteins found in brain tissue were a major factor in causing the disease, and thus based on his recommendations for the next decade huge amounts of money were devoted to following up that conclusion.
The problem was that Masliah’s work was garbage.
[O]ver the past 2 years questions have arisen about some of Masliah’s research. A Science investigation has now found that scores of his lab studies at UCSD and NIA are riddled with apparently falsified Western blots—images used to show the presence of proteins—and micrographs of brain tissue. Numerous images seem to have been inappropriately reused within and across papers, sometimes published years apart in different journals, describing divergent experimental conditions.
After Science brought initial concerns about Masliah’s work to their attention, a neuroscientist and forensic analysts specializing in scientific work who had previously worked with Science produced a 300-page dossier revealing a steady stream of suspect images between 1997 and 2023 in 132 of his published research papers. (Science did not pay them for their work.) “In our opinion, this pattern of anomalous data raises a credible concern for research misconduct and calls into question a remarkably large body of scientific work,” they concluded.
Today the National Institutes of Health finally released a statement [pdf] agreeing with these findings of misconduct and adding that Masliah is no longer head of the Division of Neuroscience.
The problem is that for almost a decade the entire research field studying ways to treat Alzheimer’s had been led down the wrong path by this man and the NIH, all because no one in during peer review had done the proper due diligence in reviewing his papers in the first place. A vast amount of taxpayer money was wasted, and worse, eight years of research time were lost.
The second story today is even more embarrassing. In November 2023 a paper was published outlining ways to increase the accuracy, reliability, and rigor of scientific research. The paper’s authors were so-called experts in this field.
That paper has now been retracted because of the “experts” who wrote it had done a bad job, their own paper filled with errors as well as shoddy, incorrect methods that produced false results.
In other words, the very people the science community considered its arbiters in describing how proper research should be done could not do it themselves.
“But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”
None of this should surprise anyone. In fact, that this kind of misconduct and incompetence is only now being highlighted by the scientific community further illustrates the corruption within it. Such misconduct had become obvious back in the early 2000s when the Climategate emails were released. Rather than punish the wrong-doers in that case, such a Michael Mann, the science community circled its wagons, denying any wrong-doing while providing aid and comfort to those wrong-doers. At the same time it worked to blacklist those who blew the whistle on this bad climate research.
You see, there was simply too much money at stake, all being handed out by government agencies to the right people. Can’t have anyone interfere with that gravy train!
Sadly, the putrefaction in the climate field was merely a precursor to the putrefaction we discovered in the government health field during the COVID panic of 2020, which resulted in the tragedy of lockdowns and blacklisting. The response to that respiratory illness, led by the government and its health agencies, was an utter failure of momentous proportions.
These two stories today merely indicate how deep that rot has now become. And it will not be fixed until there is a major cut-off of government money to these institutions, because it is that government money, handed out with little supervision or care, that is the root cause of these problems.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Things that should be entirely walled off from politics: Science. Practical economics. Communications. Your right to defend yourself.
There are curious grammatical errors in this article. Written by a human?
Benjamin Johnson: Last time I asked my wife, she said I was human. What about you, Benjamin Johnson? Your comment reeks of spam and AI.
Thank you for an excellent read about the horrors of pseudoscience. Your article deserves widespread promotion, and I thank Rantingly for leading me here. I shall eventually read all of your work. Donation head your way.
Keep writing Mr Zimmerman!
I’m 73. The word expert is used so much it really has no meaning. The word expert implies that the “expert” knows everything thing there is to know about x. And that no further information is needed. The problem is that along comes another “expert” who has a completely different take on it and now we have 2 experts. Me. I rely of practical experience and simple logic to get down to the truth.and it certainly not going to come from the government shills. According to the government. I should be dead because I did not take the jab. I worked with around people who had the flu. “Covid”. And I can attest to the fact that each and everyone who took the shot in the senior complex where I work has contacted covid. (Flu). I have my theories on it. I’ll save you the details. But my “expert” analysis of government is. Its primary job is to manufacture and sell fear.
My grammar might be off. But everyone gets the point. lol
I have a starting point-entropy. You see, Einstein’s “C”, may not necessarily be so since the time of the Beginning….hard, analog instruments from the start of the Renaissance, are showing some “drift”….after triple/quadruple cross-checks. Still here since day one, when BTB was considered “alt-media”. (actually this is the real media and science)
Robert Zimmerman: The latest trendy fad among those who dislike something written is to accuse it to have been generated by AI. I’ve seen the same claims raised in reviews of my books when the critic disapproves of my conclusions.
Oh, yeah – and typos that slip through are proof it was written by AI, too,
Seawrite: Actually, the dominate “trendy fad among those who dislike something written” now is to refuse to debate the point with any substance at all, but to throw insults at the writer and his work. Sometimes its “denier.” Sometimes its “disinformation.” Sometimes it is “fake.” Sometimes it is “AI.”
In every case there is a 100% refusal to even recognize the presented facts, and discuss why those facts might be wrong. They are determined to be wrong up front, without thought, and so anyone who wrote them is evil.
Wow, no one wants to actually discuss the issue.
Amazing.
I would like to propose that this Masliah fellow had help in putting together this deception based around my assumption that this involved an enormous amount of work. So someone who knows what is being done is getting paid for the fraud. Is this criminal? Who is responsible for enforcing research standards?
Considering the reviewers have inadequate resources to catch these transgressions, how about using that new kid on the block, AI, to help spot these charlatans. We must be careful to check the results of course and not grow dependent on it for the final conclusions.
Others have also noticed that science is broken:
https://brokenscience.org
Unless lockdowns and blacklisting were their goals, in which case it was an utter success.
This is the moment Bill Gates decided to kill everyone on Earth.
https://t.ly/E0y70
Related:
D.E.I. THE DESTROYER: POLITICAL TREASON
“Teach hatred, division, racism, fear, retribution, entitlement and mediocrity and all you will have is chaos and you will have gone a long way to serving yourself up and delivering yourself to your enemies in the world. And that is not good for anyone concerned, except the radical Democrats and their perverse political crusade.
And their intent in everything they have been doing? Political Treason.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/d-e-i-the-destroyer-political-treason
Eisenhower Farewell Address
January 17, 1961
“Scientific Technological Elite”
https://youtu.be/OyBNmecVtdU?t=566
“…a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.”