Ruminations in Korea

“How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.” 2 Samuel 1:25

As set out in the following story from Reuters, another very sizeable nail has been pounded into the coffin of Hwang Woo-suk and his claims. Shame, disgust, disgrace, sadness, waste…These are all words that come to my mind at this point, but they don’t really capture the essence of what I am feeling about this story at this point. To my speculations about suicide, I am not inclined to believe that someone may seriously attempt to kill him.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to discredited scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday, concluding that his once-celebrated team provided no data to prove a claim they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells.

The findings deepened the disgrace of a man once heralded as a national hero for his pioneering work on stem cell and cloning research.

The panel will also review Hwang’s 2004 paper on creating the first cloned human embryos for research and a claim he produced the world’s first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

“It is the panel’s judgment that Professor Hwang’s team does not have the scientific data to prove that they (patient-specific stem cells) were made,” said Roe Jung-hye, chief of Seoul National University’s research office.

It said the team may have produced only two stem cell lines, not 11 as the authors of the landmark paper had claimed.

Roe told reporters the final two lines, which could have proved the fundamental findings of Hwang’s team, were not produced in Hwang’s lab but at a Seoul hospital.

“The findings of three labs showed the number two and number three stem cell lines that needed confirmation with regard to the 2005 paper did not match with patient tissue cells and were found to be fertilized-egg stem cells of MizMedi Hospital,” Roe said.

Experts say the stem cell case is fast developing into one of the biggest scientific frauds in recent history: the next questions will be how Hwang’s team was able to pull it off and exactly how many people were involved.

…INDEED…. to be continued….Unfortunately

There are a lot of people who send email and comments like the following:

“Tell me, is there ANYTHING you LIKE about Korea? After reading your articles, I’m really amazed that you bother to stay. It seems you haven’t a positive word to say about the country at all.
Why don’t you go back to america?”

and

“found most of your blog to be one long diatribe. I got bored quickly. I’ll bet you’re one of the many expats who complain day and night about Korea all the while trying to [intercourse] as many Korean women as posssible. Disgusting.”

For people that are casual and lazy readers, for people that lack the time/skills/motivation to accurately analyze and comprehend what is actually being said, it is sometimes necessary to set the record straight.

Who am I? Why am I here? Do I hate Korea? Why am I so negative? Why don’t I just go home?

Click here to find out the answers to these and other questions.

Click here to listen to how the Hwang scandal is affecting the publishing world.

Audio Blog? Why not?

UPDATED

The panel made it clear that this could NOT have been an accident. “Based on these facts, the data in the 2005 Science paper cannot be some error from a simple mistake, but [must] be seen as a deliberate fabrication to make it look like 11 stem-cell lines using results from just two.”

They are now investigating every imporant claim he has ever made.

It is OVER for Hwang. I mentioned before that I think he is going to kill himself. I think the odds of that happening has just increased significantly.

UPDATE!

Hwang resigned from his professorship at Seoul National University.

He apologized:
“I sincerely apologize to the people for creating a shock and disappointment.As a symbol of apology, I step down as professor of Seoul National University.”

Well, THAT was pretty insufficient.

The Boston Globe reports that some of the alleged clone stem cell photos used by Hwang in his paper may not be what they seem.

According to the article: “A landmark 2004 paper in which South Korean scientists claimed to have cloned human stem cells for the first time contains photos that appeared in an unrelated paper, calling their claim into question and increasing the controversy that surrounds the team. Two photos in the 2004 paper, published to great fanfare in the journal Science, claim to show batches of the world’s first cloned human embryonic stem cells. Yet the same photos appear in the journal Molecules and Cells, in a research article by another Korean team, submitted before the Science paper, and in that paper both photos are labeled as cells created without cloning.”

Hwang tried to explain away duplicated photographs by blaming the newspaper for printing the wrong pictures. He has had NUMEROUS opportunities to mention and/or explain and/or apologize for the use of pre-existing photographs that had been published in other papers. However, he has never mentioned this. I wonder how he wil attempt to explain this and who he will try to blame it on.

Why does anyone in Korea continue to trust ANYTHING this guys says anymore? That is a rhetorical question, by the way.

What are the results of Hwang’s actions? Here are a few listed in the Boston Globe article:

“The duplication, the scientists said, raised doubts about two of seven tests done to prove the cells were legitimate.”

“raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the overall paper, especially after the questions raised about other work done by the team.”

“The duplicate photos in the 2004 article now call into question his original claim. Hwang is the only scientist to claim to have cloned human stem cells”

“Dr. Robert Lanza, a scientist at Advanced Cell Technology, a Worcester-based biotech that has worked on cloning human cells, and is a competitor of Hwang’s. ”There seems to be a pattern here.”
“ Gee, Dr. Lanza, ya think?

“as the questions mount, scientists say that they cannot have confidence in any of the work the team did.”

“Lanza raised questions about two other papers published by members of Hwang’s team. In one paper, published last year in the Federation of European Biochemical Societies Letters, the results of a test done on two different groups of cells is presented, to compare how they respond to a growth factor. The test generates dark blobs, but two of these blobs seem to look precisely the same, except flipped, which would be very unlikely to happen by chance, Lanza said. This would imply that the test was not actually done, or that a serious mistake was made in preparing the paper. Hwang is not listed as an author on this paper, but two of the authors — Kim Sun Jong and Park Jong Hyuk — are listed on the 2004 cloning paper.”

“In another paper, published in Molecular Reproduction and Development, there are several examples where blobs look exactly the same, even though they are supposed to be generated by different tests. Again, this implies that key tests were not done, or that the authors made errors in preparing their manuscript, Lanza said. Hwang is listed as the senior author.

“Scientists said yesterday they are also concerned about Hwang’s claim to have cloned a dog.”

I wonder what the Vegas odds are on whether or not Hwang will eventually kill himself. I feel that the odds are fairly high that he will.

Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, the cloning, stem cell, Snuppy guy seems to be in VERY, VERY, VERY big trouble.

Unethical research methods, using assistants’ eggs, people (including assistants) being paid for the donations, broken partnership with foreign researcher, said researcher demanding that the paper with his name on it be withdrawn, "errors" leading to duplicated photos….Not looking good at all.

But the rest of the world doesn’t really matter does it, because Hwang still walks on water here in Korea. He is still the savior of mankind here in Korea. Perhaps he will be able to fabricate his own Nobel Prize and write it off as an error when confronted.

The King is dead. Long live the King!

It is 10:00am and the day already has the markings of one of those days that you really wish would never have happened in the first place.

Upon arrival at my office, I walked to the corner convenience store to get something for breakfast.  I arrived at the store and while pondering what to get, I had a sudden urge to get a tuna triangle kimbab (Sort of a triangle version of a sushi roll).

There were 5 middle-aged to old men standing next to the cooler where the kimbab is kept. I walked over and got what I was looking for. As I started to walk away, I head that all-to-common work, "미국놈" (Migook-nom).  Migook is "America," but "nom" is a tricky word to translate.  "Nom" is a word used to indicate animals or objects.  When talking about people, it can mean anything from a casual reference, such as "guy", to something more offensives, such as "bastard."  From context and vocal inflection, the term is most often used in the "bastard" sense of the word.  In any case, it is always a derogatory term. 

Hearing "Migook-nom", my ears perked up to hear one of the older men say in a very snide tone, "These American bastards think they are developing tastes similar to ours. Ha Ha Ha. He passed up the sandwich and took the kimbab." (much giggling from all of the men).

As the store clerk has become somewhat of a good acquaintance, I didn’t feel like causing a scene.  So, instead of being confrontational, I turned to shoot the speaker one of my "you pathetic idiot" stares.  It was at that point I realized they were standing near the cooler because they were using the hot water dispenser to get hot water for their cups of instant Starbucks coffee.  Ah… Ignorance and unnoticed irony…  The speaker had actually said, "These American bastards think they are developing tastes similar to ours," while holding a small cup of Starbucks Cafe Americano in his hand.

Ugh!

I have used this joke before in my writings. I can’t remember where it was from. I think it was from a very old article by Michael Breen, but I could be wrong. It goes like this:

An Englishman comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. He apologizes for interrupting and quietly closes the door on his way out.

An American comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. He pulls out a gun and shoots both his wife and the other man.

A Korean comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. He goes and protests in front of the US Embassy.

It seems that this has happened again. Here is a picture of a particularly unfunny “gag man” named Kim Yong. By and large, Korean “gag men” (sort of a sketch comic) make me want to do just that…gag!. This is particularly true of Kim Yong. Not only do I find him completely unfunny, but he has demonstrated is own laziness and idiocy on so many levels. The picture, then the story.

THE STORY:

On 6 December 2005 at 1:00 pm, Mr. Kim held a one-man demonstration. Where was it held? Of course! He held his demonstration in front of the US Embassy. Why there?

Mr. Kim is protesting the “fact” that the movie “The 40 Year Old Virgin” was stolen from a book that he wrote. In the picture, he can be seen holding placards and wearing sign boards saying:

“UNIVERSAL, REVEAL THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR!”
“United International Pictures, why don’t you explain this video?”
“I am a citizen of the Republic of Korea!”

I wish I could see the longer one on his back, but it is hidden from view.

I don’t even want to get into the issue of why he thinks the US Embassy is the place to stage this lonely demonstration or why he thinks anyone at the embassy would even care.

A very simple internet search would have revealed to Mr. Kim that the screenplay was written by Steve Carell and Judd Apatow, and that the movie was based on a skit about a closet virgin that Steve Carell wrote “wrote years ago at Second City”, a brilliant Chicago theater troupe. (See also here, here, and here)

Mr. Kim, while you may not be surprised that there are people in the world funnier than you, and smarter than you, and can come up with a witty idea without your help, you may be somewhat shocked and dismayed that there is no chance that Steve Carell even knows who you are or that he has ever read your book. Also, unless your book was written and distributed around the US in the late 1980’s, the skit came out first. Sorry to burst your little comedic bubble, but you just may be wrong here. Regardless of whether or not you are right or wrong, you look like a pathetic fool standing out there all alone hoping someone takes your picture so that you can get in the media and maybe sell one or two copies of your book to curiousity seekers. If you REALLY feel that your idea was stolen, then put your stupid signs down and go retain the services of a law firm that will sue the snot out of everyone involved in the film.

I don’t know whether to feel angry at his arrogance or to feel pity towards him because he may actually believe that.