「学术界大地震」骗了世界十余年!哈佛大学医学院宣布撤回31篇论文
近日,一则号称“可能是学术界有史以来最大的丑闻”引发人们广泛关注。
据报道,哈佛大学近日从各类医学期刊上撤回哈佛医学院及其附属布莱根妇女医院前著名心脏专家皮耶罗·安韦萨(Piero Anversa)博士的31篇论文,理由是涉嫌伪造和篡改实验数据。
Harvard Calls for Retraction of Dozens of Studies by Noted Cardiac Researcher
A prominent heart researcher formerly at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston fabricated or falsified data in 31 published studies that should be retracted, officials at the institutions have concluded.
背景
· Harvard Medical School (哈佛医学院) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University.
· Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) 布莱根妇女医院/布列根和妇女医院,是校园与之毗邻的哈佛医学院的主要教学医院之一。
fabricate & falsify
fabricate表示“编造,捏造”,英文解释为“to invent a story, piece of information etc in order to deceive someone”,举个🌰:
The police were accused of fabricating evidence.
警方被控捏造证据。
falsify表示“篡改,伪造〔数字、记录等〕”,英文解释为“to change figures, records etc so that they contain false information”,举个🌰:
The file was altered to falsify the evidence.
文件被动了手脚,以此伪造证据。
撤回
表示“收回,撤销〔已说的话或已答应的事〕”,英文解释为“if you retract something that you said or agreed, you say that you did not mean it”,举个🌰:
He confessed to the murder but later retracted his statement.
他承认谋杀,但后来又翻供了。
同义词,withdraw同样表示“收回,撤回 〔言论、批评、声明等〕”,英文解释为“if you withdraw a remark, criticism, statement etc, you say that what you said earlier was completely untrue”,举个🌰:
He refused to withdraw his remarks.
他拒绝收回自己说过的话。
那么,微信里的“撤回”消息怎么翻译的?
所以,recall message要加a吗?
The scientist, Dr. Piero Anversa produced research suggesting that damaged heart muscle could be regenerated with stem cells, a type of cell that can transform itself into a variety of other cells.
The cardiac researcher rocketed to fame in 2001 with a flashy paper claiming that, contrary to scientific consensus, heart muscle could be regenerated. If true, the research would have had enormous significance for patients worldwide.
2001年,安韦萨博士凭借“受损心肌(damaged heart muscle)可通过干细胞(stem cells)再生”这与科学共识相反的研究而名声大噪。 如果这是真的,该研究将对全球患者具有重大意义。他甚至被认为引领心肌细胞再生的新领域研究,开创了心脏干细胞疗法。
rocket to fame
更常用的应该是rise to fame,表示“成名,出名”,英文解释为“to become famous”,举个🌰:
He rose to fame in the 90s as a TV presenter.
他在90年代作为电视节目主持人成名。
rocket作动词除了表示“迅速上升,猛涨”,也可以表示“迅速取得成功;一举成名”,英文解释为“to achieve a successful position very quickly ”,举个🌰:
Their new album rocketed to number one in the charts.
他们的新专辑跃居排行榜首位。
Although other laboratories could not reproduce his findings, the work led to the formation of start-up companies to develop new treatments for heart attacks and stroke, and inspired a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.
虽然其他同行们一直不能复现他的这一发现,但仍阻止不了无数的公司、资金投入“心脏干细胞”领域的研究。
reproduce his findings
duplicate his work
“A couple of papers may be alarming, but 31 additional papers in question is almost unheard-of,” said Benoit Bruneau, associate director of cardiovascular research at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. “It is a lab's almost entire body of work, and therefore almost an entire field of research, put into question.”
“几篇论文出问题会令人担忧,但31篇论文全部有问题的情况闻所未闻。”旧金山格莱斯顿研究所心血管研究副主任贝诺伊特·布鲁诺(Benoit Bruneau)说,“这几乎是一个实验室的所有成果,因此几乎整个研究领域都会受到质疑。“
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital began their review of Dr. Anversa's publications in January 2013. In April 2017, Brigham and Women's Hospital agreed to pay $10 million to the federal government to settle accusations that Dr. Anversa submitted fraudulent data to get research funding.
2013年哈佛医学院和布莱根妇女医院就已经启动了对安韦萨博士所发表的论文的审查。
2017年,联邦政府指控安韦萨博士使用伪造数据骗取政府财政支持的研究资金,为此,布莱根妇女医院向联邦政府赔偿了1000万美元。
fraudulent
表示“骗人的,欺诈性的”,英文解释为“intended to deceive people in an illegal way, in order to gain money, power etc”,举个🌰:
a fraudulent insurance claim
欺诈性保险索赔
a fraudulent statement
骗人的声明
Officials at Harvard declined to comment on why it took so long to take action on Dr. Anversa's published work.
至于为什么花了这么长时间才撤回安韦萨博士所发表的成果,哈佛官员拒绝对此作出回应。
In effect, his response was “you guys don't know how to do it,” said Dr. Bruneau.
当时很多同行难以复现安韦萨博士的结果时,他表示,“是你们不知道如何操作。”
Dr. Anversa claimed to have discovered that bone marrow cells are not needed to repair heart muscle. The heart has its own stem cells, he reported, which can be removed, multiplied in a petri dish, and injected back into the heart to replace and repair damaged cells.
petri dish
表示“皮氏培养皿〔尤用作细菌培养的有盖玻璃碟〕”,英文解释为“a small clear dish with a cover which is used by scientists, especially for growing bacteria”
bone marrow cell 骨髓细胞
heart muscle 心肌
stem cell 干细胞
No one else could get those experiments to work, either, said Jeffery D. Molkentin, a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Cincinnati Children's Heart Institute.
A study published in the journal Circulation by Dr. Anversa was retracted in 2014 after co-authors wrote to the journal saying the data in the paper were not data they had generated. Dr. Anversa left Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2015.
2014年,安韦萨博士在《Circulation》杂志上发表的一篇论文被撤;2015年,他从哈佛医学院和布莱根妇女医院离职。
Despite the troubling questions that had been raised about the stem cell work, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute began a clinical trial of injected stem cells for patients with heart failure. The study is still enrolling patients. And there are still companies selling stem cell therapy for damaged hearts.
clinical trial 临床试验
heart failure 心力衰竭
In the past few years, however, skeptical researchers moved on to other prospects for heart treatment. “The field has backed off a lot,” Dr. Molkentin said. Some scientists wondered how a questionable line of research persisted for so long. Maybe, Dr. Molkentin said, experts were just too timid to take a stand.
take a stand
take a stand 表态;采取立场,表示立场
作为名词stand可以表示“(尤指公开的)观点,立场,态度”,英文解释为“an opinion, especially one that is public”,举个🌰:
What's your stand on sexual equality?
你对男女平等持什么态度?
stand 还可以表示“看台;售货亭;摊位;展台”,英文解释“a small shop or stall or an area where products can be shown, usually outside or in a large public building, at which people can buy things or get information”,如:a hotdog stand 热狗摊
But what about those companies selling stem cell treatments for the heart?“People wanted to believe,” he said.
来源:纽约时报
- END -
十余年的研究、产业瞬间付诸东流
而受影响的不仅有
相关领域研究的学者、学生,
还有患者......