Overview

"This book presents an investigation of a celebrated scientific discovery that was revealed to be fraudulent from a journalist with a unique insight into the case. It is expected that the book will be extensively reviewed due to the author's media connections, as she has written for the ""New Scientist"" and many other popular publications within the scientific community. It will also be advertised in ""Nature and Scientific American"". There are no competing works examining the extent of this fraud and the effects it had on the scientific community. It is written by a journalist with unprecedented access to this infamous case of major scientific fraud that hit headlines worldwide.Schon's discovery of a plastic that worked as a superconductor was noted as a scientific triumph before revelations that his discoveries were fake. This book analyzes the fraud and considers pressures that force unscrupulous behaviour from science's rising stars."

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9780230224674

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Reviews

'There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Chief Editor, Nature Nanotechnology '!Reich's journalistic persistence and technical thoroughness yield a largely complete, often dramatic account of Schon's roguery and downfall.' - Booklist 'Eugenie Samuel Reich unpicks the tale with meticulous care.' - Philip Ball, Sunday Times '!a wonderful piece of forensic writing.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times 'It is gripping stuff: a surprising page-turner that is well worth reading.' - New Scientist 'The book's real strength is the way it uses a journalistic approach to document what was happening on a week-by-week basis at Bell Labs...In doing so Reich uncovers a wealth of detail...that has not been published before. There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Nature Nanotechnology 'A brilliant case study of research fraud.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times

'There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Chief Editor, Nature Nanotechnology '!Reich's journalistic persistence and technical thoroughness yield a largely complete, often dramatic account of Schon's roguery and downfall.' - Booklist 'Eugenie Samuel Reich unpicks the tale with meticulous care.' - Philip Ball, Sunday Times '!a wonderful piece of forensic writing.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times 'It is gripping stuff: a surprising page-turner that is well worth reading.' - New Scientist 'The book's real strength is the way it uses a journalistic approach to document what was happening on a week-by-week basis at Bell Labs...In doing so Reich uncovers a wealth of detail...that has not been published before. There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Nature Nanotechnology 'A brilliant case study of research fraud.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times

'There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Chief Editor, Nature Nanotechnology '...Reich's journalistic persistence and technical thoroughness yield a largely complete, often dramatic account of Schon's roguery and downfall.' - Booklist 'Eugenie Samuel Reich unpicks the tale with meticulous care.' - Philip Ball, Sunday Times '...a wonderful piece of forensic writing.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times 'It is gripping stuff: a surprising page-turner that is well worth reading.' - New Scientist 'The book's real strength is the way it uses a journalistic approach to document what was happening on a week-by-week basis at Bell Labs...In doing so Reich uncovers a wealth of detail...that has not been published before. There are probably still more secrets under lock-and-key at Murray Hill and elsewhere, but for now Reich's engrossing book will be the last word on the matter.' - Peter Rodgers, Nature Nanotechnology 'A brilliant case study of research fraud.' - Clive Cookson, Financial Times

Blow-by-blow account of how a Bell Labs researcher scammed his colleagues and the physics community.Former New Scientist editor Reich looks at the career of German researcher Jan Hendrik Schon, who claimed to have built electronic chips that performed amazing feats. Supposedly made of crystallized organic materials, the chips promised radical breakthroughs in computer technology. After graduating from the University of Konstanz, Schon came to the attention of Bertram Batlogg, a highly respected Bell Labs manager who specialized in superconductivity. In 1998, searching for a junior researcher to work with organic crystals he hoped might replace silicon as the basis of chips, Batlogg took Schon on the recommendation of Ernst Bucher, who had overseen Schon's doctorate thesis. Reich is undecided whether Schon was already fabricating data from his experiments, but the author does show that he already had a habit of fudging calculations to make his results resemble the most probable curve. He also hated to disagree with his colleagues. This, Reich argues, led him to exploit the margin of error in his experimental results to make his findings match expectations. But in the fast-paced atmosphere of Bell Labs, something beyond the ordinary was expected. Schon began to publish a series of papers in leading journals, claiming increasingly spectacular results: an organic laser, a light-emitting transistor, even a transistor made from a single molecule. All were faked. Reich meticulously documents Schon's rise to stardom, the doubts when others failed to replicate his experiments and his exposure as a fraud. Along the way, she examines the culture that permitted him to succeed for as long as he did.Slow in spots, but a compelling look inside big science at one of its least admirable moments. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

EUGENIE REICH has worked as a science and technology reporter for many years specifically as a researcher for the BBC, on the science documentary Vanished and as a correspondent and a features editor for the New Scientist.

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