The Dubious Botanist
Episode description
A Canadian scientist wanted to demonstrate how he could use DNA barcoding to distinguish between different strains of cannabis; a pretty valuable thing to be able to do during the weed marketing gold rush.
To prove it, he just took a graph of U.S. arrest data, changed the title, and said 'here, here's my evidence.'
He did a lot more than that. And it might have all gone unnoticed, if not for some meddlesome researchers. Senior producer Sarah Lawrynuik gets into it.
Featured in this episode: Charles Piller, investigative journalist for Science Magazine; Ken Thompson, post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University; Paul Hebert, director of the University of Guelph's Centre for Biodiversity Genomics
Further reading:
- Failing the test, Charles Piller, Science
- Controversial supplements researcher not guilty of misconduct, Canadian university concludes, Charles Piller, Science
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