Letters

Roses & Tulips Scientific Integrity tered notebooks that he doctored data, appropriated results from another re- Dear Editor: searcher without giving credit, and Dear Editor: Biology Today on "Flowers & Weeds" used an untested rabies vaccine on a Why do teachers and textbook pub- (ABT, October 1996) noted that a rose's human subject. lishers continue to ignore the issue of "genetic potential" precludes it from True, many textbooks mention the scientific integrity? Call it scientific mis- ever producing blue flowers. Try infamous Piltdown hoax and some de- conduct, impure science, the science of grinding a red rose petal in a little water scribe how Gregor Mendel "cooked" things that aren't so, or even out-and-out with a mortar and pestle, or with the data to obtain classic 3:1 phenotypic cheating, this issue has been and remains back of a spoon on a white plate. Add ratios. Some may even mention that of paramount importance to the public some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) Charles Darwin only begrudgingly perception of science. and watch the petal extract turn blue. mentioned, in the third edition of The In recent weeks, Dr. Francis S. Col- Similarly, tulips were said to lack the Origin of Species that compatriot lins, the highly-regarded head of the Patrick Matthew had given "precisely genetic potential to produce black Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/59/2/72/10261/4450252.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 U.S. Government's Human Genome flowers. However, several tulip culti- the same view on the origin of species Project and banquet speaker at the 1996 vars have black anthers, and 'Pierson' as that propounded by Mr. (Alfred R.) NABT Convention in Charlotte, has has black splotches at the base of its Wallace and (Darwin) in a small book, retracted five papers on leukemia re- tepals as pictured in Crockett (1971). Naval Timber and Architecture, pub- search after it was learned they con- Breeders have gotten close to true black lished in 1831, 28 years before the pub- tained data fabricated by a junior col- tulips, with cultivars such as 'Black lication of the first edition of Darwin's league. Although Collins had no part Parrot' and 'La Tulipe Noire'. Alexan- monumental work. in the fraud, he admits to having seri- dre Dumas, author of The ThreeMuske- In 1992 I participated in an NSF- ous regrets that, as research mentor, he teers and The Count of Monte Cristo, also funded summer course for high school didn't realize earlier that fraud was wrote the 1850 novel, The Black Tulip, students. Included in the curriculum being perpetrated. about the discovery of a black tulip. was a short unit on scientific integrity. Consider also the flap over Robert Dumas was inspired by the Dutch tu- I developed a number of activities, Gallo's taking credit for the discovery lipomania, the widespread and exces- some of which I expanded for use in of the HIV virus when, in fact, the virus sive speculation in tulip bulbs in the my high school biology classroom. Stu- had first been identified by scientists at 1630s. Many people lost their fortunes dents enjoyed the activities, often using the Pasteur Institute of Paris. Then when the tulip market collapsed in 1637. their own ingenuity to expand and there is the case of Tereza Imanishi- Tulips are a marvelous plant to dis- elaborate upon them. I would be happy Kari, only recently absolved of wrong- cuss in biology class. They are a good to share these activities with interested doing in a 15-year-long case that led to example of a plant where the horticul- teachers-I can be reached at: 5471 the resignation of Nobel-Laureate from tural classification is more important South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60615. the presidency of Rockefeller Univer- than the scientific one. Two horticul- The e-mail address is voort@oddjob. sity. Baltimore had signed on as co- tural classes of tulips commemorate the uchicago.edu. author to a paper by Imanishi-Kari, but famous biologists, Darwin and Mendel. With the news media giving huge a challenge by a lab worker to the amounts of attention to matters of eth- David R. Hershey authenticity of their published results ics and integrity in politics, social rela- Biology/HorticultureDepartment resulted in a lengthy investigation leav- tionships, and business, it is high time Prince George's Community College ing well-established careers in tatters. for teachers to address integrity in sci- Largo, MD 20772-2199 The sainted Louis Pasteur has been ence. Stopping corruption of the pro- shown to have feet of clay. A recent cess of science can, and must be an Reference book by Gerald Geison, The Private important part of science education. Science of Louis Pasteur, Princeton Sincerely, Crockett, J.U. (1971). Bulbs. Alexandria, University Press, 1995, describes recent VA: Time-Life. revelations from Pasteur's long-seques- Frances S. Vandervoort

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72 THEAMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 59, NO. 2, FEBRUARY1997