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IP: NATURE: Is a bell tolling for Bell Labs?
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 01:46:03 -0400
------ Forwarded Message From: David Akin <dakin () ctv ca> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 22:29:29 -0400 To: "'dave () farber net'" <dave () farber net> Subject: FWD: NATURE: Is a bell tolling for Bell Labs? Hi Dave -- Thought many IPers would be interested in this article, from the latest edition of Nature David Akin CTV News The Globe and Mail Is a bell tolling for Bell Labs? PAUL GRANT Dark clouds quickly began to gather over the exceptional finding of superconductivity at 117 K reported last year by Hendrik Schön and collaborators at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Shortly after publication of the paper, I was asked by a reporter aware of my reputation as a sceptical observer of reports of 'unidentified superconducting objects' whether I felt uncomfortable that no one had reproduced any of the Bell Labs's field-effect transistor (FET) superconductivity results. My answer was: "Normally, I would be. But this is Bell Labs, and although these guys were my scientific adversaries for many years, I have the highest respect for their competence, credibility and, indeed, collegiality, and will accept their claims until proven otherwise." Yet it has turned out that several attempts to reproduce not only these results, but also others on more general organic FET configurations, have been unsuccessful, culminating in allegations of duplication of data in several papers . . . [Full story at: http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v417/n6891/f ull/417789a_fs.html] ------ End of Forwarded Message For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: NATURE: Is a bell tolling for Bell Labs? Dave Farber (Jun 19)