French journalist Chevassus’s Fraud in the Lab surveys with Gallic elegance the nature and extent of scientific fraud around the world, but Chevassus’s descriptive acuity is not matched by his prescriptive insight. He does not realize how much needs to be done to rein in scientific fraud. But simply to delineate the scope of the problem is a real achievement.
Chevassus first quickly reviews the history of scientific fraud. Such fraud we have always had. The publication of original research is the enduring marker of scientific fame, and some scientists have always sought the bubble reputation by playing fast and loose with their research. The post-1945 explosion of science research funding by government, private industry, and private philanthropy, which vastly increased both the number of scientists and the financial stakes of scientific research, has also vastly increased the amount of
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