Thread by @AMartinezArias

Something strange is happening in certain realms of biology. Let me tell you a story

A scientist (let’s call them scientist nr 1) and a journalist make the announcement, in the form of an exclusive, of an important discovery that triggers a wave of headlines around the world.

There' s no evidence to judge the statement & when, by force, it's made available, the statement proves to be false. The headlines triggers other scientists to post related findings. One of them, scientist nr2, shows exactly what scientist nr1 claimed to have achieved but hasn’t.

Surprisingly, now everybody treats nr1 & nr2 as if they have achieved what only nr2 has achieved. At the same time, many people see an opportunity to give their views on the subject regardless of the facts they are writing @

and scientist nr1 gets praise for having done the same as scientist nr2.

Suddenly scientist nr1 starts saying that never said what the jrnlst said and that they will produce better data, at some point and that the work of scientist nr2 and others is also very good…..No more the exclusive that initiated the whole thing.

I find this very odd, but is happening. If we allow this to go unchecked, we are forfeiting the checks and balances of science and entering a #posttruth era that has become too common in politics.

It would be good if we madd an effort to preserve the tradition of not celebrating cheats and lies. I am aware that there is a problem with scientific publishing but we are not going to solve by using factless newspapers headlines to state….well, whatever we want to say.

Without facts to be checked and w/ jrnlsts looking for a headline, this is what will happen. And yes, we need to work with the public on this but we should show fort that we recognize, decry and deal w/ falsehoods and their perpetrators.

While we decide what we want to do, which path we choose, enjoy the show.