Liar, Liar

Lying isn’t always a bad thing, is it?

On the last day of August 2023, Holden Thorp, the editor of Science, published an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times. The piece ran on the last day of Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s tenure as Stanford University president. Thorp announced that Science was retracting two articles because of serious concerns regarding Tessier-Lavigne’s research. The decision was a result of investigations launched by a variety of interested parties, including the Stanford school paper and the university itself.

In the end, the inquiries concluded that “Tessier-Lavigne did not have direct knowledge of the errors, but that he did not catch or make enough effort to correct them.” Data had been manipulated, and misconceptions fostered.

The research papers had borne false witness of the Old Testament variety, fueled by a host of other sins, including greed, pride and ambition.

This tempest at the prestigious West Coast university pales in comparison to the typhoon that had already been...