Compared with the glacial pace of American universities, the Chinese decision was practically a summary execution.
On May 12, video blogger Geng Hongwei alleged that Shanghai University scientists faked data in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The university announced a probe the same day. A month later, it said it confirmed misconduct, fired a postdoctoral researcher and ousted the dean of the university’s Institute of Translational Medicine.
A flurry of such cases involving top Chinese researchers and prestigious scientific journals has made Geng a celebrity in China and perhaps the nation’s most powerful person in medical science. With a single five-minute video, the 33-year-old graduate-school dropout can stop an academic star’s career in its tracks.
“The main reason they moved so fast is the sheer scale of the public outcry I can generate,” Geng said in an interview. “The universities simply couldn’t afford to wait.”