The hocus-pocus of scale
Whenever a group of military veterans get together, invariably some iteration of the old 'war-story' will come up about the “midnight acquisition” specialist that every military outfit seemed to have somewhere in the lower ranks; he was always the guy with the buddy who worked at the supply depot.
For example, there once was a platoon that ran out of toilet paper, and couldn’t seem to get their supply replenished through normal channels. The platoon "acquisition specialist" was sent on a surreptitious mission to get a couple of cases of toilet paper from the supply depot. The guy’s buddy at the depot took his friend aside and whispered “you’ll have to take a whole pallet, because if I give you just two cases, they’ll notice it.”
Which brings us to the point… In the field of traditional science, if a “scientist" phonies up some scientific data, it will probably be discovered during the peer review process. However, if the “science” itself is fraudulent, then phony data can very easily go unnoticed.
Why Fake Data When You Can Fake A Scientist?
Hoss Cartwright, a former editor of the International Journal of Agricultural Innovations and Research, had a good excuse for missing the 5th World Congress on Virology last year: He doesn’t exist. Burkhard Morgenstern, a professor of bioinformatics at the University of Gottingen, dreamt him up, and built a nice little scientific career for him. He wrote Cartwright a Curriculum Vitae, describing his doctorate in Studies of Dunnowhat, his rigorous postdoctoral work at Some Shitty Place in the Middle of Nowhere, and his experience as Senior Cattle Manager at the Ponderosa Institute for Bovine Research. Cartwright never published a single research paper, but he was appointed to the editorial boards of five journals. Apparently, no one involved in the application processes remembered the television show Bonanza, or the giant but amiable cowboy named “Hoss” who was played by actor Dan Blocker. Despite Cartwright’s questionable credentials, he was invited to speak at several meetings such as the 5th World Congress on Virology—typically a mark of recognition as an expert.
Caveat doctrina!
/fl