Letters

The accompanying article, in the same issue by Leonard Minsky, and the history of Jerome Jacobstein’s experiences adjoining it, remind us of cases in which universities have chosen to punish the whistlebiower rather than the person who in fact proved to be guilty of fraud. It is of course very difficult to set up a committee that is expert in the scientific field involved in a disptited case, and also free from conflict of interest. I would only insist that such a body cannot be set up within the institution itself, in cases where the charges are serious and the issues are complicated, if the verdict is to convince the world at large that justice has been done.

JOHN T. EDSALL. Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass. 02138