Duke University to pay over $100 million in settlement for fake research

There are many serious ramifications in pursuing science that fits a narrative instead of collecting data, then deriving proper theories from real data.

One of the consequences, especially in this seemingly new era of real justice that we are now enjoying, is that cheating scientists can get caught and punished.
For example, Duke University will now pay the U.S. government $112.5 million in a settlement related to the submission of faked to win federal research grants. A whistle-blower is also going to enjoy a big reward, instead of fired or otherwise punished.

Former Duke researcher Erin Potts-Kant conducted the alleged fraud from 2006 to 2013. She was fired for embezzling money from the university, which happened during the same period, according to Duke. After her firing, her research was scrutinized, which led to the retractions of 17 scientific papers, according to RetractionWatch.

Lung function in mice exposed to pollutants would be of interest to the green justice advocated in the Environmental Protection Agency, hoping to create even more controls and more rules to support an ever-expanding bureaucracy. By funding Potts-Kant’s work, what other worthy projects have been neglected, including those that may have really benefited the American people.

Legal Insurrection has covered a wide array of fraudulent theories passed off as real science: Food rules, polar bear populations, tampered-with temperature data, plastic pollution in the ocean, just to name a new.

How many billions are squandered by businesses in senseless environmental compliance? How many people have gotten obese or developed diabetes because of unhealthy good guidelines? How much more funding could have been devoted to effective, local pollution-solutions instead of uselessly endeavoring to “fix” the global climate?

When politics contaminates science, it hurts everyone. In fact, I would argue it is the most dangerous pollutant in today’s world.