From Medical News Today, word of a major failure of peer review spanning years and 11 journals.
Researcher Who Studied Benefits Of Red Wine Falsified Data Says University
An extensive misconduct investigation that took three years to complete and produced a 60,000-page report, concludes that a researcher who has come to prominence in recent years for his investigations into the beneficial properties of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, “is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data”.
In a statement published on the university’s news website on Wednesday, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center said the investigation has led them to inform 11 scientific journals that had published studies conducted by Dr Dipak K. Das, a professor in the unversity’s Department of Surgery and director of its Cardiovascular Research Center.
The internal investigation, which covered seven years of work in Das’s lab, was triggered by an anonyomous allegation of “research irregularities” in 2008.
…
Philip Austin, UConn’s interim vice president for health affairs, said:
“We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across the country.”
…
According to a report from the Associated Press (AP), Dr Nir Barzilai, whose team conducts resveratrol research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says Das is not a major player in the field.
Barzilai told AP lots of labs around the world are conducting extensive research into resveratrol, with encouraging results, and the new allegation will not make a material difference.
Full article here – h/t to WUWT reader Mark Johnson
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Where’s the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI) on Climate Research and the IPCC?
MMM… is it worth carrying on taking my Res V. plus ??
this would seem to be not O/T –
13 Jan: UK Daily Mail: Who’d have predicted that? Blundering Met Office weathermen are handed even bigger bonuses
The performance-related bonuses, up from £2.6million the previous year, were revealed by the Department for Business yesterday in response to a question from Sammy Wilson MP.
Mr Wilson, Democratic Unionist Party MP for East Antrim, said: ‘It’s a bit ironic in the week that the Prime Minister has talked about ending this bonus culture and bonuses for failure, that a government body has awarded its staff a 30 per cent hike.
‘This was the year that it got the weather dramatically wrong, when we had the coldest winter after they predicted it was going to be one of the warmest…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085748/Met-forecasters-wrongly-predicted-freezing-winter-BBQ-summer-receive-30-boost-BONUSES.html
Oh No!
Something tells me I’ll still be drinking wine….
“Dr Nir Barzilai, whose team conducts resveratrol research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, says Das is not a major player in the field.”
“…the Health Center has declined nearly $900,000 in federal grants awarded to Das.”
So just how much does a major player in this field receive in federal grants?
Bummer …. but I still did enjoy a nice Okanagan Syrah this evening after snowboarding in the Nelson BC area today. Canadian wines have come a long ways! Good job, eh !
Now seriously, I won’t hold my breath hoping similar corrections are made (as appropriate) with climate research publications, but I do hope the climategate emails stimulate similar investigations.
And the beat goes on: “Barzilai told AP lots of labs around the world are conducting extensive research into resveratrol, with encouraging results, and the new allegation will not make a material difference.”
What do you want to bet the entire line of inquiry will turn out to be tainted by bias?
India produces a good share of tricksters.
Beware in your business.
No need for research as we all know that wine in moderate quantities is good for health: in French clinics 40 years ago, a glass of wine was given to recovering patients…
What on earth can cause a misconduct report to be 60,000 pages? How many words does it take to say the guy is a cheat? 60,000 pages – that’s more than the Encyclopaedia Brittanica! Must be a typo?
Deepak Das should use ConnU on his resume instead of UConn.
Cheers
this is also summarised on the UK Met Office story page…OUCH!
12 Jan: UK Telegraph: South Africa weather forecasters threatened with jail if predictions wrong
By Dan Newling in Cape Town
Independent forecasters have been told they could be imprisoned for up to ten years – or fined up to £800,000 – if they issue incorrect severe weather warnings without official permission.
The threat is contained in a new law designed to prevent panic and economic damage caused by false predictions of gale force winds, flash flooding or drought.
The proposed amendment to South Africa’s Weather Service Bill would mean that anyone wanting to issue a severe weather warning would first need to get written permission from the country’s official national weather service.
If found guilty of breaching the law, first offenders could face up to five years in prison or a five million rand (£400,000) fine.
Repeat offenders face a maximum of 10 years imprisonment or a ten million rand (£800,000) fine…ETC ETC
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9010030/South-Africa-weather-forecasters-threatened-with-jail-if-predictions-wrong.html
It’s good to see a university do the right thing. And let’s notice UConn is taking a pretty big hit in the grant money department. They’ve suspended $900k in Das’ grant money. He’s been there for 26 years, and the grant cycle is ~5 years. So they’re looking at losing $2-3 million over the truncation of his career.
From this, one can surmise that the UEA, UVA, and UPenn administrative hierarchy are ethically smarmy rather than merely venal.
Resveratrol is a pretty good antioxidant regardless, by the way, and it’s not very expensive anymore. So, if you’re into quenching metabolic free radicals and suppressing background inflammation, it’s a worthy supplement.
Why don’t they do the same level of investigation of the IPCC??? (sarc)
The Climate Bible is so full of holes and fabricated, made up, manipulated, coerced, skewed, adjusted, modified, etc. data many should be in jail.
Gee, I wonder why??? (more sarc.)
Seriously, what exactly will it take to finally put an end the CAGW theory? Is it grassroots thing, where it’s just a matter of time before the IPCC adjusts climate sensitivity down to such a low level, that taxpayers finally just get fed up and fire the politicians that advocate CAGW?
You’d think Climategate 1 & 2 would have done them in (Thanks Anthony for the great analysis and time you spent on this) but it just seems to go on and on, with more CO2 laws passed, CO2 taxes implemented, money wasted on expensive/inefficient alternative energy projects/subsidies… It’s all just so frustrating….
Anyway, WUWT, keep up the excellent work! You’re doing an incredible job and it is most appreciated.
For general quaffing I prefer white wine myself.
Not that I have anything against a fine red burgundy, or a good barolo or even a old rioja for that matter.
Claret I can take or leave and new world red wines I prefer to leave, if I want to be hit in the face by the flavour of blackcurrants I prefer to buy Ribena: a famous English blackcurrant syrup brand.
As for the health benefits I find wine most beneficial.
As for absurd health claims backed with meaningless statistical garbage I have no use for them. A current one is that eating processed meat increases the chance of pancreatic cancer by some 20%. Golly gosh. Isn’t going to put me off my bacon sandwiches I can tell you.
It’s all unbelievable balderdash. There are serious risks to life in this world which wise persons take account of: and there are imperceptible risks which might kill the odd unlucky person. These are of little or no account to thee and me.
Which does not stop do gooders and a sensation seeking press going on about them. Ignore.
Kindest Regards
Jeff L says:
January 12, 2012 at 10:08 pm
… Canadian wines have come a long ways!
——-
You can thank NAFTA for that.
“Barzilai told AP lots of labs around the world are conducting extensive research into resveratrol, with encouraging results, and the new allegation will not make a material difference.”
The science is settled. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Lots of other studies agreed therefore the science was good. Right…
Don’t forget that increased CO2 is good, at least for Port Wine:
http://www.vitis-vea.de/admin/volltext/w0%2009%2012.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf8020199
Ecotretas
Darn it, I need a new alibi for my Friday night tipple…
The internal investigation, … was triggered by an anonymous allegation of “research irregularities” in 2008.
I suspect the tipster was the Coca Cola corp. So if I quit taking Communion, it won’t affect my health?
But-but-but, his computer models proved the link between good health and red wine. So whats the problem? So what if he made up a few numbers and tweaked the model to coincide with his theory, nothing new, everyone does it.
Hey, the more red wine I drink, the better I feel. That’s all the modeling I need.
Cheers!