Science & technology | Dog days for Dr Hwang
The Korean cloning scandal
Jan 12th 2006 |
Yet more humiliation for Hwang Woo-suk. Last month, Dr Hwang was found to have made up claims, published in 2005, that he had cloned 11 people and derived lines of stem cells from the resulting embryos. Stem cells are the source of the specialised cells that make up the body, and the participants in the study were suffering from the sorts of disease (for example, diabetes) which it is hoped that such cells might one day cure. On January 10th an investigating team from Dr Hwang's former employer, Seoul National University in South Korea, announced that his original claim, made in 2004, to have cloned a human embryo and derived stem cells from it was also false. Dr Hwang's only crumb of comfort was that the panel believed his claim to have cloned a dog, nicknamed Snuppy (Seoul National University Puppy). Science, the journal that published the two human-cloning papers, is now retracting them. Meanwhile its rival Nature, which published the dog paper, is trying not to look too smug.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "The Korean cloning scandal"
Science & technology January 14th 2006
A logical leap
The law of unintended consequences
From the January 14th 2006 edition
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