From Elizabeth Carrey
I feel sorry for Haruko Obokata, who has been found guilty of misconduct by her research institute in Japan (19 April, p 7). Stem cell research is a high-stakes field and it is right that other scientists will seek to repeat work of such potential importance. But really, was she the only author on the two papers published in Nature? Did she rush to publish against the advice of her PhD supervisor and senior colleagues? Was she the only person who might have enhanced her career on the basis of this finding?
How fortunate Watson and Crick were that their proposed structure of DNA was (nearly) correct, and similarly Jérôme Lejeune (5 April, p 44) was lucky that the majority – although not all – of Down’s cases are based on trisomy 21. If their early conclusions had been doubted by other researchers, would they have taken the flak, or would they have had to acknowledge the contributions of their anonymous female colleagues so that they could take the blame for a hasty publication?
Leigh Town, Devon, UK
