Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩

PGR at @UofGlasgow.

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

Excited for this event!!!

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@AMAZlNGNATURE Or… these goats have mastered the laws of Physics.

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@a_j_dobson @DiannaMarcu That’s amazing .. Congrats Dr @DiannaMarcu 💐💐💐

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

These are the kinds of things that make it difficult for the public to “trust the science”. However, in the end, the science showed itself trustworthy, showing up the faults of the scientist.

[Andrew Akbashev @Andrew_Akbashev]

It’s a story of how academia goes wrong. And how it self-corrects.

A must read for everyone:

2020 - A discovery of room-temperature superconductivity is published in Nature by Ranga Dias

2023 - The second RT superconductor is reported by Dias in Nature

2024 - The first paper is retracted. Then the second. No one could replicate his results.

The forth investigation by external experts showed that ‘he concealed information from his students, manipulated them and shut them out of key steps in the research process’.

▫️

The story looks like this:

1. Dias proposed that adding carbon to H3S might lead to RT superconductivity.

2. His PhD students could NOT observe the signs of superconductivity in the samples (no resistivity drop, no susceptibility change).

3. Suddenly, Dias emailed everyone and announced the discovery of RT superconductivity. Students were shocked.

4. The draft was sent to the team at 5.13 p.m. and SUBMITTED to Nature at 8.26 p.m. In just TWO hours! No one had time to read it.

5. Dias told the students he ‘had taken all the resistance and magnetic-susceptibility data before coming to Rochester’.

6. 3 reviewers were concerned. Only one supported publication. It was published on 14 October 2020.

7. A year(!!!) later Dias made raw data publicly available. This prompted data check where ‘data points were separated by suspiciously regular intervals’.

8. Then, Nature initiated post-publication review by 4 experts. Two said there were big problems.

9. Following rebuttal & responses, Nature retracted the manuscript. Dias did NOT tell the students about the post-publication review process and data fabrication concerns.

▫️

Now, the 2nd paper raised concerns about PhD students:

- Dias sent them the draft at 2.09 am and asked for comments by 10.30 am (same day). The draft had NO figures.

- The students convinced Dias to postpone submission by one day.

- The students raised concerns about the pressure data because none of it was “anything that we actually measured”. Dias dismissed it with: “Pressure is a joke.”

- Then ‘Dias gave them an ultimatum: remove their names, or let him send the draft’. It was very intimidating. The students gave in: “What if I [object] and he makes the rest of my life miserable?”

▫️

My conclusions:

1. This situation shows how easily a supervisor can manipulate inexperienced students into publishing and believing the results. I am sure there are many other examples in academia that just haven’t surfaced.

2. All data must be publicly available. Before publication.

3. Nature took the case professionally, asking for extra refereeing and post-publication review multiple times as things were unfolding. BUT it's not so common. I heard many stories where some journals just didn’t care.

4. Finally and MOST importantly - students suffer the most.

As one of them said:

“My thesis is going to be full of fabricated data. How am I supposed to graduate in this lab?”

#academia #PhD #research

[Christianson Lab @ERADLab]

Registration for the @EMBO ER meeting, Oct. 20-25 in Italy, should open later this month! We've got a great line up of speakers so hope you can join us there for what promises to be another fantastic meeting on all things ER. Mark your calendars!
https://t.co/kCOpB2pwAK

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

I’m delighted to have my first review article examining the various functions, respective to localisations, of the anterior gradient proteins has been published in ARS. A huge thanks to all of my co-authors who worked on this project.

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@lafont_elodie @avril_tony @emboreports Congratulations @lafont_elodie 🎉🎉🎉

[Björn Schumacher @schumacherbj]

Dear international students and talents from around the world, note that German universities welcome foreign students, are tuition free and many subjects are taught in English. Germany has become an open and liberal society in contrast to what the UK government is implementing.

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@k_rocks1 @ukhomeoffice It’s £25000 for postgraduate students

[Ossy FA @iamossy_]

@10DowningStreet The child of an Immigrant was brought into the UK by his parents, he became a UK prime minister, and then he sanctions an aggressive immigration reform. Lol

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@ijrichards1 @jewuner @jeremycorbyn Wouldn’t that also make Israel a terror group?

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@BeccaBudgett @sophbrad @morenorse @UoG_TransPharm Congratulations Dr @BeccaBudgett !!!

[Avezov lab @AvezovL]

AlphaFold wins Lasker - well deserved! https://t.co/U9ec8riDAd

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@CSignaling Merci beaucoup!!

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

@cfcuk1878 @Co_Biologists @UofGSMB @Eric_Chevet @lafont_elodie @avril_tony Thanks 🙏

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

Happy to be chosen for this @Co_Biologists award at #calreticulin2023. It was a pleasure to share some of the research done during my PhD @UofGSMB. Thanks to @Eric_Chevet, @lafont_elodie & @avril_tony for organising this conference. congratulations to the other award winners.

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

Blockage of Sec61 important in Burili Uclers caused my M. Ulcerans #calreticulin2023

[Aamer Anwar✊🏾🏳️‍🌈#BlackLivesMatter @AamerAnwar]

Charles III, isn’t being crowned because of any merit, but simply because he was born into power- with his fortune of £1.8B but food banks up by 30%, millions in poverty, why do we even have to pay £100M for his coronation or a decadent & archaic monarchy @bbcdebatenight 🤴🇬🇧

[Arvin Pierre 🇬🇩 @Saxy_Scientist]

Sabrina Francis | Live Jazz Music & Great Food | PizzaExpress Live https://t.co/vguMAYI6eA via @pizzajazzclub