Science Sleuth Looks To Expose Research Fraud

Elisabeth Bik is on a mission to find scientific duplicates and fakes — and thousands of people are watching.

By Anna Funk
Nov 20, 2023 12:00 PMNov 20, 2023 1:00 PM
Elisabeth Bik
No longer working from a lab, Bik hunts for research fraud from her home office in California. (Courtesy of Elisabeth Bik)

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This story was originally published in our Nov/Dec 2023 issue as "Science Sleuth" Click here to subscribe to read more stories like this one.


Science has a problem: It’s conducted by humans. Many of these humans follow the rules and procedures outlined by the scientific method and conduct themselves with integrity. But as with any sector of society, there are bad actors who cheat to get ahead.

In 1912, an archaeologist named Charles Dawson combined and altered pieces of human and ape skulls, claiming to have found the evolutionary “missing link” between humans and apes. His sham wasn’t discovered until 1953, after the invention of new bonedating techniques. Though Dawson couldn’t get away with this today, for every new technology that uncovers a fake, there’s another that provides a new way to fake findings.

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