The Rise and Fall of a Superstar in the

Nanoworld: the Schön Case

S. Ossicini

“This is the biggest fraud in the history of modern physics” D. Ralph (Cornell Un.)

Top Journals “Nature, Science, PRL...”

New Fields “Nanostructures, organic materials,optoelectronics,superconductivity”

Elite Institutions “Bell Labs”

S. Ossicini

JanHendrik Schön(1970)

PhD 1997 Kostanz (D)

DoktorVater E. Bucher

(Solar cells (Si, III-V))

1998-2002 Bell Labs.

91 Pub. 2495 citations

2001 45publ-1x8days!

Head: Bertram BatloggS. Ossicini

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“Groundbreaking results and devices on at least 10 new inorganicand organic materials and nanomaterials (1999-2002)”

i) Continous tunability of charge carrier concentration in FET

ii) QHE and FQHE in unconventional semiconductors

iii) Single organic molecule transistor

iv) Hydrocarbon superconductors(anthracene,tetracene,pentacene)

v) Non cuprate superconductivity 117 K!

vi) Organic polymeric superconductors

vii) Electrically driven organic laser

viii) Light emitting organic FET

ix) Ambipolar FET

x) Fully tunable Josephson junctionS. Ossicini

APS David Adler Prize 2000

B. Batlogg

For his contributions tosuperconductivity,heavy

fermions and organicsemiconductors

AAAS Fellow Prize 2000

B. Batlogg

For distinguished contributions in the fields of superconductivity, magnetic

oxides and organicsemiconductors

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First Industrial Award at ICSM 2000

B. Batlogg and his collaborators J. H. Schön

and C. Kloc

Field Effect Transistor

10.000 US Dollar

Braunschweig Preis 2001

B. Batlogg and his collaborators J. H. Schön

and C. Kloc

C60 superconductivity

100.000 D-MarkS. Ossicini

Otto Klung Preis 2001 (50.000 D-Mark)

(Organic Semiconductor and Superconductivity)

J. H. Schön

Jury: G. Kaindl, I. Hertel, P. Heyn, E. Matthias, W. Von Aertzen

1979 T. Haensch 1983 G. Binnig, 1985 H. L. Störmer, 1986 H.Michel, 1987 J. G. Bednorz

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Zhenan Bao

2002 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator

$ 3000 – J. H. Schön

“for innovative and creative experimental investigations of

organic and molecular materials, which have led both to

fundamental insights in chargetransport in these systems and to

a demonstration of new electronicand optoelectronic devices”

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Rising Star

With 31 (the youngest in the history) the Max Planck Institut für Festkörperphysik in Stuttgart

offers him a Direction.

“Reports” Excellent! “He has magic hands”S. Ossicini

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>100 Labs worked on Schön results

Thents of Ph.D. thesis

Schön streaking results not reproduced!

“Almost too good to be true” 2001 October

(Schön answers)

April 2002 anonymous researchers at Bell contact

Lydia Sohn (Scully) at Princeton. Identical curves.

Sohn contacts Paul McEuen (Mulder)

at Cornell University. Figure’s duplications.

They take contact with Schön, Batlogg, Bell Labs.

Schön admits some confusion with figures

May 2002 Bell set up an Investigation Committee

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M. R. Beasley,S. Datta,H. Kogelnik,H. Kroemer,D. Monroe

SCIENCE 8 NATURE 5

PHYSICAL REVIEW B 2 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 4

JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS 1 THIN SOLID FILMS 1

PHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI B 1 SYNTETHIC METALS 1

PREPRINT 1

www.lucent.com/news_events/researchreview.html (?)

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Space-Charge Limited I-V Measurements

PRB 58, 12952 (1998) (50) JHS,CK,RL,BB PRB 63, 245201 (2001) (15)

JHS,CKSame data for two different materials,

α-6T and HolePentaceneS. Ossicini

Nature 413, 713 (2001) (47) JHS,HM,ZB

Exactly the samedata, divided by a

factor 2!

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Transistor Characteristics

APL 77, 3766(2000) (17) JHS,CK,BBPerylene

Science 290, 963 (2000) (37) JHS,CK,BB

α-6T

Synt. Mt.122, 195 (2001) JHS,CK,BBpentacene

Same data, different materials, different potentials and polarities!

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Ambipolar Transistor Triode Characteristics

Single moleculealkanedithiolInverter Characteristics

Science 294, 2138 (2001) (31) JHS,HM,ZBNature 413, 713

(2001) (47) JHS,HM,ZB

SAMFET 4-4’-biphenyldithiol

Science 287, 1022 (2000) (165)

JHS,SB,CK,BBpentacene

Same data, fordifferent

materials, temperatures

and circuits withscala changes!

Noise!

T = 300 K

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Resistivity of PolythiopheneNature 410, 189 (2001) (65)

JHS,AD,ZB,CK,OS,BB

Same data for different charge densities, exceptsuperconductivity transition!

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Superconductivity Transition In C60

Nature 408, 549 (2000)

(132) JHS,CK,BB

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NEWS and VIEWSNature 408, 528 (2000)

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Unexpected distribution! 5000 measurementson 150 samples (destroyed!).

Batlogg “2.4 years at 0.001 V/s!” Schön changes “in 1 V/s!”

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Characterization of Sputtering ProcessBreakdown Strenght of Al2O3

Autorinnen und Autoren wissenschaftlicher Veröffentlichungen tragen die Verantwortung für deren Inhalt stets gemeinsam. Eine sogenannte

Ehrenautorenschaft ist ausgeschlossen.

DFG

Authors of scientific publications are always jointly responsible for theircontent. A so-called honorary authorship is inadmissible.

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Gardenersand

Hunters

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Role of the Researcher

Similarities

1) “Career pressure” not simple monetary gain

2) “Perpetrators tink they know the right answer” not always a violation of scientific truth

3) “Reproducibility is not expected to be simple” sample-specific(David Goodstein (Caltech 1990) “Danger factors in Scientific Misconduct”)

Similar Age- In both cases, after the scandal, doubts about the PhD thesis

Differences

Rupp 1926-1933 ~50 papers Schön 2002 45 papers

Rupp worked and published mostly alone Schön mostly in group

Rupp retracted Schön no

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Coauthors/Head Role

Similarities

The high reputation of Einstein and Batlogg propelled the acceptance of the work of Rupp and Schön

Einstein and Batlogg never saw Rupp and Schön do their experiments

Differences

Einstein do not share the credit of Rupp work. Batlogg (Schön) yes

“The hierarchically structured research mills, in which the lab chief oftentakes an automatic share of the credit for the work done by his junior colleagues regardless of how insignificant his own contribution may

have been, encourages careerism and cynicism.”

Few coauthors for Rupp A large number for Schön

B. Batlogg “If I’m a passenger in a car that drives through a red light, this is not my fault”

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Research Institution Role

Similarities

Both worked in high profile institutions Both in private Labs

Science is a “star system”. Member of the scientific elite have a major voice, this interferes with the normal mechanisms for communal

evaluation of results, because it gives undue prominence and immunity from severe scrutiny to the work of elite.

Short-Term Contracts Short-Term Contracts

Differences

Universities refused to appoint Rupp MPI offers Direction to Schön

Bell patented several Schön results

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Scientific Community Role

Similarities

General Thrust. Not possible in Physics

Self-illusion. New Field

Role of Theory. Expected Results

Differences

Small Financial Support Strong Financial Support

Role of Personal Knowledge Role of the WEB

Search and Publication of Negative Results Only Rumors

Rupp ~10 years Schön ~4 years

80% Clinical Sciences

59% Life Sciences

4% Physics, Chemistry

“I am guilty of extreme gullibility. I have to confess it. Weshould haven been suspicious of the data almost immediately”

Philip W. Anderson 2002S. Ossicini

What happened to Emil Rupp?

He had begun a new career in the German Democratic Republicin the printing industry. Between 1950 and 1963 fivepublications, on technical topics in physics and chemistry, bore his name. The organization for which he worked was the “Forschunginstitut der DDR für die poligraphische Industrie”

What happened to J. H. Schön?

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Scientific Journal Role“The way that Nature and Science compete for cutting-edge work compromised the review process in this istance. They decide for themselves what is good science or good selling science and their market

consciousness encourages people to push into print with stoddy results.” P. W. Anderson

Negative results? Computer graphic

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Nature 416: 360-363 (2002)

70 papers on the efficiency of a drug in cardiovascular

diseaseIt works- 96% (4%)

reaserch supported by manifacturers

Do not work- 60% (40%)Negative effects-37% (63%)

Medline database 1966-1997

235 articles retracted

>2000 citations

after retraction!

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A single letter of Ramsauer to ~20 distinguished physicists condemned

Rupp to the oblivion

IsiWeb Jan-Hendrik Schön (July 2008)

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Biomedicine

ORI – Office of Research Integrity (1989)

US Department of Health and Human Services

2002 - 163

2003 - 179

2004 - 268

2005 - 265

2006 – 266

43% vs. 33% guilty

Nature 419, 332 (2002)

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Science is

A social process

A historical process

A cultural process

An evolutionary process

Near rationality play a role, in the scientificprocess, creativity, imagination, intuition,

persistence, and other “non rational” elementssuch as ambition, retoric, illusion, envy,

propaganda and also fraud. It is necessary toknow this. S. Ossicini

The norms of science:Changes from the academic to the post-academic science

From CUDOS to PLACE

Robert Merton: The Ethos of Science (1942)• Communalism: Scientific results belong to

the community. • Universalism: Science is open to everybody

regardless of gender, race, religion, and scientific results must be judged by universalimpersonal criteria.

• Disinterestedness: The scientist mustseparate his own personal interests from hisresearch.

• Organized Scepticism: The scientificcommunity must organize methods forcritical testing of knowledge claims.

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John M. Ziman; Real Science (2000)• Proprietary (you don’t necessarily

publish your result) • Local (you focus on a specific problem) • Authoritarian (the boss decides) • Commissioned (you get appointed a

particular goal) • Expert (you are hired to solve problems,

not to satisfy your curiosity).

More Science-More Scientists-More Interests-More Fraud!

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Zygmunt Baumann; Liquid Times (2007)

GARDENERSThe gardener’s attitude is the best methaphor for the modern

(academic) worldview and practice. The gardener assumes thatthere would be no order in the world (science) at all were if

note for his costant attention and effort. The gardener knowsbetter what kinds of plants should, and what sorts of plants

should not grow in the plot under his care.He first works out the desiderable arrangement in his head, and then sees to it thatthis image is engraved on the plot. He forced his design on the plot by encouraging the growth of the right type of plants and

uprooting and destroying all other plants, now renamed“weeds”

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HUNTERSThe posture of the gardener is nowadays giving way to that of

hunter. The hunter could not care less about the overall balanceof things, whether natural or designed and contrived. The sole

task hunters pursue is another kill, big enough to fill theirgame-bags to capacity. Most certainly, they would not consider

is to be their duty to make sure that the supply of game roaming in the forest will be replenished after (and despite) their hunt. If the woods have been emptied of game due to a

particularly profitable escapade, hunters may move to anotherrelatively unspoiled wilderness, still teeming with would-be

hunting trophies. We are all hunters now, or told to be hunters and called or compelled to act as hunters do, on penalty of eviction from

hunting, if not (perish the thought) of relegation to the ranks of game.

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“Truth is the daughter not of authority, but time” Bacone

J. H. Schön

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“And therefore it was a good answer thatwas made by one who, when they showed

him hanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their wows as havingescaped shipwreck, and would have himsay whether he did not now acknowledge

the power of the gods-’Aye’, asked heagain, ‘but where are they panted that

were drowned after theyr vows?’ ”

Where, indeed, are the frauds that havenot been uncovered?

S. Ossicini