I observed a senior researcher directing a young Japanese postdoc to change data in an experiment. The postdoc was clearly troubled by the order. Shortly after that exchange, he committed suicide by drinking sodium azide, a white solid that uncouples the electron transport chain, causing the person to suffocate and die. I went to the program director (Frank’s boss) and told him what I had witnessed. “I know why he killed himself,” I said. My boss was uninterested. The senior researcher got results. The young Japanese postdoc was written off as suffering from emotional problems, leaving behind
...more
