Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

by Stuart Ritchie

Particularly interesting for our hunt for the motives of fraudsters, though, is what comes at the end of the lengthy investigation report: a short reply from Schön himself. He pleads that, although he ‘made mistakes’ and ‘realise[s] there is a lack of credibility’ he also ‘truly believe[s] that the reported scientific effects are real, exciting, and worth working for’.110 We should of course be extremely wary about taking fraudsters at their word. But Schön’s apparent faith in his theory, even after so much of his work had been expunged from the scientific literature (he’s currently fifteenth on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard, with thirty-two retractions) speaks to the kind of delusion and self-deception that Medawar and Goodstein noted above.111 It’s impossible to know for sure, but Schön might genuinely have believed in his incredible transistors and seen his rule-breaking as a necessary evil in his quest to bring them to the world’s attention.