Leonid Schneider & ‘For Better Science’ ---- Crank or Cure?

I’ve been aware of Leonid Schneider’s expose blog ever since the piece on the supposed fraud of Nobel prize-winner Gregg Semenza appeared on my Twitter feed. Schneider portrays himself as an under-dog; the self-styled “failed scientist” has taken a liking to pillaring the hypocrisies of the scientific establishment. To be honest, although criticisms of the undertakings of science are always needed, especially when it concerns matters of data integrity, publishing practices, and perverse incentives in academia, I am a bit weary of uncritically listening to someone who appears to have no established career in either science or science journalism (the only pieces published under his own name appear only on the blog he runs). And his pieces do come off with a bit of crankiness – reading them alone one would think that the scientific establishment is infested with data forgery, devised by scientists whose only wish is to publish in fancy journals at any cost. Schneider’s issue with Semenza seems to stem from his belief that Semenza (or one of his underlings) duplicated Western blot images to support their findings. This seems a bit of a slippery concept – I do a lot of Western blot’s myself, and looking back at some of them you could say that many of the bands look strikingly similar to each other without the need for Photoshop shenanigans. Accusing someone of forgery by eye-balling their papers doesn’t seem like a great recipe for calling out supposed fakery – it only encourages paranoia and academic vigilantism.

https://thiscomplexlife.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/leonid-schneider-for-better-science-crank-or-cure/