Analytical chemistry and ‘The Con Man’

One wouldn’t think that a story about scientific fraud would arouse a lot of passion among the reading public unless it had something to do with climate change or water fluoridation, but a NY Times story from this past weekend’s magazine (The Mind of a Con Man, April 28, 2013) generated over 360 comments in just a few hours. Some had a lot to say, but Dr. Allison Stelling ’04, had offered this short assessment of fraud, the virtues of analytical chemistry, and something that she remembered her A-chem prof, Ron McClard, saying:

“My undergraduate thesis adviser at Reed College, Prof. McClard, once said during his always amusing analytical chemistry lecture: “When you become wedded to your hypothesis rather than to your data, that’s a little bit scary.” Sometimes I think social and life sciences would benefit if a solid analytical chemistry course were a requirement for the majors.”

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