Eugenie Reich is an attorney who defends scientific whistleblowers, and a former investigative science journalist. We talk about her previous work as a science journalist, in particular her book Plastic Fantastic about one of the biggest fraud cases in physics, the case of Jan-Hendrik Schön. We'd planned to also discuss Eugenie's current work as an attorney, but spent all our time on the Schön case. Eugenie kindly agreed to do another interview, in which we cover the legal aspects of fraud, which will be the next episode (#106).

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: One of the biggest fraud cases in physics/all of science
0:05:47: How and why Eugenie started writing about the Schön case
0:09:26: Why did Schön commit fraud?
0:19:30: Schön's PhD: he never saved any original data
0:30:05: Bell Labs vs. Schön's PhD lab: long-term revolutions vs. short-term applications
0:36:42: Schön's first work at Bell Labs was 'unpublishable'
0:41:42: How to get away with fraud: pretend you collected data in another lab
0:47:45: Bertram Batlogg and the role of the supervisors of fraudsters
0:56:20: How the bursting of the Dot-Com Bubble and 9/11 may (indirectly) have exacerbated Schön's fraud
1:01:09: How to use your colleagues' ideas to commit better fraud
1:05:05: How Schön's fraud unraveled
1:13:45: What is Schön doing now?
1:18:11: A book or paper more people should read
1:20:20: Something Eugenie wishes she'd learnt sooner
1:22:58: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Eugenie's links

• Website: https://geni.us/reich-web
• Twitter: https://geni.us/reich-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

Episode with Simine Vazire: https://geni.us/bjks-vazire
Episode with Elisabeth Bik: https://geni.us/bjks-bik

Bell Labs (2002). The Schon report: https://media-bell-labs-com.s3.amazonaws.com/pages/20170403_1709/misconduct-revew-report-lucent.pdf
Reich (2009). Plastic fantastic: How the biggest fraud in physics shook the scientific world.
Shapin & Schaffer (1985). Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life.

James (Mac) Shine is a PI and fellow at the University of Sydney. We talk about his background in sports, using fMRI to integrate various parts of neuroscience, collaboration, and much more.

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: Mac's sporting background
0:07:46: Overview of Mac's review in Nature (w/ Emily Finn and Russell Poldrack)
0:14:03: The role of great editors in improving scientists and their work
0:32:53: Connecting different levels of description
0:40:07: Integration and specialisation
0:48:49: You can scan any animal with fMRI - but they're usually anaesthetised
0:54:13: The transfer from human fMRI to animal electrophysiology
1:01:53: N=1 studies and layer-fMRI in clinical neuroscience
1:16:17: Collaboration and building a multidisciplinary lab
1:26:52: The magic formula in science: annoyance, excitement, and a constructive mindset
1:34:51: Writing grants as a test to oneself, and the art of reframing
1:41:52: A book or paper more people should read
1:43:37: Something Mac wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:45:43: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Mac's links

• Website: https://geni.us/shine-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/shine-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/shine-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

OHMB interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucDj_94ovaU

Boyden, ... & Deisseroth (2005). Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity. Nature Neuroscience.
Finn, Poldrack & Shine (2023). Functional neuroimaging as a catalyst for integrated neuroscience. Nature.
Friston, ... (2017). Active inference: a process theory. Neural Computation.
Munn, ... Larkum & Shine (2023). A thalamocortical substrate for integrated information via critical synchronous bursting. PNAS.
Newbold, ... & Dosenbach (2020). Plasticity and spontaneous activity pulses in disused human brain circuits. Neuron.
Pezzulo & Cisek (2016). Navigating the affordance landscape: feedback control as a process model of behavior and cognition. TiCS.
Poldrack, ... (2015). Long-term neural and physiological phenotyping of a single human. Nature Communications.
Rao & Ballard (1999). Predictive coding in the visual cortex: a functional interpretation of some extra-classical receptive-field effects. Nature Neuroscience.
Shine, ... (2011). Visual misperceptions and hallucinations in Parkinson's disease: dysfunction of attentional control networks?. Movement Disorders.
Shine, ... & Poldrack (2016). The dynamics of functional brain networks: integrated network states during cognitive task performance. Neuron.
Shine, ... & Poldrack (2016). Temporal metastates are associated with differential patterns of time-resolved connectivity, network topology, and attention. PNAS.
Shine & Poldrack (2018). Principles of dynamic network reconfiguration across diverse brain states. NeuroImage.

Brandon Brown is a professor at University of California Riverside, where he studies global health and ethics. He also writes career columns for Nature and Science, which we talk about: negotiations in academia, his sabbatical, his life owning and working a farm, different types of grants and contributions in academia, and much more

BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.

Support the show: https://geni.us/bjks-patreon

Timestamps
0:00:00: Brandon's path to becoming a scientist
0:20:39: Start discussing Brandon's career columns in Nature
0:32:17: Grant applications: small vs. big
0:41:36: Postdoc-phase: is my plan crazy?
0:55:32: Different types of contribution/recognition in academia
1:09:22: Negotiation in academia
1:22:47: Contributing to team science
1:30:30: Sabbaticals
1:39:19: Brandon's farm
1:48:15: A book or paper more people should read
1:49:33: Something Brandon wishes he'd learnt sooner
1:51:43: Advice for PhD students/postdocs

Podcast links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Brandon's links

• Website: https://geni.us/brown-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/brown-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/brown-twt

Ben's links

• Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
• Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
• Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links

CAMP: https://www.campstatewide.org/
truEvolution: https://www.truevolution.org/

Brandon's columns (most of which we discussed):
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02390-w
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03184-8
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00381-5
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.364.6447.1306
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.372.6548.1358

Coelho (1988). The Alchemist.