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Panel Further Discredits South Korean Scientist
NY Times ^ | December 29, 2005 | CHOE SANG-HUN

Posted on 12/30/2005 10:57:25 AM PST by neverdem

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 29 - Hwang Woo Suk, South Korea's disgraced star scientist, could present no evidence to corroborate his landmark claim that he had cloned human embryos and extracted from them stem cells that genetically match patients, a university panel said today.

The announcement by the panel, from Seoul National University where Dr. Hwang did his research, suggested that he did not just grossly exaggerate his work in an article published in the journal Science in June, but fabricated the entire paper.

"So far we could not find any stem cells regarding Dr. Hwang's 2005 paper that genetically match the DNA of patients," Roe Jung Hye, the university's dean of research affairs, said in a statement. "According to our judgment, Dr. Hwang's team doesn't have scientific data to prove that it has produced such stem cells."

There was no immediate comment from Dr. Hwang, who apologized last week for falsifications in his paper and resigned from the university.

The latest revelation added more skepticism to his persistent claim that he at least had the technology to clone human embryos and extract stem cells from them, which would be a breakthrough in the quest to help patients with hard-to-treat diseases to produce their own, regenerated tissues. Stem cells are master cells that can evolve into blood, liver, muscle and other cells.

If his claim proves false, the goal of such treatment, known as therapeutic cloning, may be considerably further off than it seemed a few months ago, when Dr. Hwang's fame was at a peak.

Hopes for therapeutic cloning soared after he published a stunning paper in Science in February 2004, claiming to be the first to clone a human embryo by transferring an adult cell's nucleus into an egg, and extracting a stem cell line from it.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cloning; crevolist; hwang; hwangwoosuk; southkorea; stemcells

1 posted on 12/30/2005 10:57:26 AM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Dang, Hwang! perhaps two Hwangs could make it right.........


2 posted on 12/30/2005 11:00:30 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: cpforlife.org; Coleus; Peach; Mr. Silverback; airborne; MHGinTN; Asphalt; Dr. Scarpetta

Happy New Year!


3 posted on 12/30/2005 11:00:50 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Red Badger

When he walked into the room, they shouted "Hwang, Woo Suk!"


4 posted on 12/30/2005 11:07:19 AM PST by GaltMeister (“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”)
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To: neverdem

How can those benighted, troglodytic pro-lifers quibble over stem-cell rhetoric? It's science!


5 posted on 12/30/2005 11:08:08 AM PST by wideawake
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To: GaltMeister

If it had been cats they might have believd him..........


6 posted on 12/30/2005 11:10:11 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: Red Badger
Dang, Hwang! perhaps two Hwangs could make it right.........

Is this close enough to be politically incorrect?


7 posted on 12/30/2005 11:18:36 AM PST by solitas (So what if I support an OS that has fewer flaws than yours? 'Mystic' dual 500 G4's, OSX.4.2)
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To: Red Badger
suggested that he did not just grossly exaggerate his work in an article published in the journal Science in June, but fabricated the entire paper.

When we contacted Mary Mapes and Dan Rather, they were quoted as saying "we don't have a problem with that. Really."

8 posted on 12/30/2005 11:19:08 AM PST by GaltMeister (“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”)
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To: solitas

I'm of Asian ascent and I am not offended........You must try harder, Grasshopper.........


9 posted on 12/30/2005 11:21:08 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: GaltMeister

Fake, but accurate..........


10 posted on 12/30/2005 11:21:39 AM PST by Red Badger (And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him)
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To: Red Badger; GaltMeister; solitas; wideawake; neverdem
A scientist once went amuck
Trying to make a fast buck
Working hard to clone a cell
Alas the work went all to hell
Everyone said: Hwang You Suck!
11 posted on 12/30/2005 11:40:57 AM PST by Enterprise (The MSM - Propaganda wing and news censorship division of the Democrat Party.)
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To: neverdem
Why, oh why, did this article ever get published in Nature Journal without being corroborated first? What has become of Scientific Standards?

Nyuk, Nyuk,Nyuk!

12 posted on 12/30/2005 1:23:36 PM PST by Thebaddog (K9 4ever)
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To: neverdem
If his claim proves false, the goal of such treatment, known as therapeutic cloning, may be considerably further off than it seemed a few months ago, when Dr. Hwang's fame was at a peak.

Good

13 posted on 12/30/2005 2:52:16 PM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
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To: neverdem

Journalists, scientists... amazing what these people can get away with. Otherwise, why would they try?


14 posted on 12/30/2005 7:11:33 PM PST by dr_who_2
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