Can a Greek tragedy be avoided?

Now under way is the third formal investigation within two years of a paper from the Whitehead Institute, in the fever of investigationy scientific reputations may be damaged.

Abstract

A detailed account is provided of the experiments, techniques, and conclusions of the disputed 1986 research report from the Whitehead Institute at MIT currently being investigated by both the House of Representatives oversight committee and a committee appointed by the National Institutes of Health. The author explains the objections to the data in a study by David Baltimore and others of the production of immunoglobulins by the lymphoid cells of transgenic mice and the repercussions of this controversy within the research field. He proposes that the remedy to the evident imperfections in the scientific literature rests with the scientific community, not with Congress.