Editorial: Don’t rush to rehabilitate Hwang

An article published on Nature’s website last week has created quite a buzz in South Korea. It details efforts by former Seoul National University cloning specialist Woo Suk Hwang to rehabilitate his scientific career after he was found in 2006 to have been involved in fraud. Some in South Korea are taking the article as a sign that Hwang is now producing great science and is once again lauded by the scientific community. Stock prices of companies with connections to Hwang’s work have apparently jumped. It is as if many of the people talking and writing about the article have not read it. They and others can do so now if they wish: it appears as a News Feature on page 468.

As readers will see, the article is not a show of support for Hwang’s research. Nor is it an attack. It is the story of a rare event: a scientist attempting with some success to dig himself out from the depths of ignominy. It is a journalistic exercise, not a scientific endorsement. And it was commissioned to...