Does falsified data undermine a high-profile superconductivity research claim?
Core argument: A major physics journal is retracting a two-year-old paper co-authored by University of Rochester professor Ranga Dias that described the transformations of a chemical compound squeezed between two pieces of diamond.
A major physics journal is retracting a two-year-old scientific paper that described the transformations of a chemical compound as it was squeezed between two pieces of diamond. Such an esoteric finding — and retraction — would not typically garner much attention. But one of the leaders of this research is Ranga Dias, a professor at the University of Rochester in New York who made a much bigger scientific splash earlier this year, touting the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor. While Dr. Dias continues to defend the work, to some scientists, there is now clear evidence of misconduct. “There’s no plausible deniability left,” said N. Peter Armitage, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who is among the scientists who have seen the reports. “They submitted falsified data. There’s no ambiguity there at all.”