Misconduct claim fuels dispute among “wrist-walker” researchers

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="5">Misconduct claim fuels dispute among “wrist-walker” researchers</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="1" face="Arial">March 2</font><font face="Arial"><font size="1">, 2006<br> Special to World Science<br> </font><br> </font><b><font face="Arial" size="2">In surprise twist to the already odd case of a syndrome whose victims walk on all fours—which might shed light on the origin of upright walking, according to scientists studying it—a bitter row has split the researchers, fueled by claims of scientific misconduct.<br> <br> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="200" style="float: right; padding-left: 10; padding-bottom: 10"> <tr> <td><img border="0" src="../images/quadrupeds.JPG" style="border: 2 ridge #FFFFFF" width="200"></td> </tr> </font> <tr> <td><font face="arial" size="1">Five siblings from a Turkish family never learned to walk on two legs. They are said by some researchers to get around quite well on all fours. (Credit: Uner Tan)</font><font face="Arial" size="2"><br> <hr> </font> </td> </tr> </table> <font size="2" face="Arial"> The discord stems partly from differing theories on <a href="http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060225_syndromefrm.htm"> the condition</a>, which one researcher has termed a possible “devolution.” <br> <br> But the intellectual ping-pong has itself devolved into a personal war, pitting that relatively little-known Turkish researcher against three internationally known U.K. scientists.<br> <br> He says that after he invited them to study the case with him in Turkey, they “stole” his credit for discovering it, sold the finding to the BBC for an upcoming documentary and—worst—paid the victims’ family to end their cooperation with him and other researchers.<br> <br> Since all documented cases of the syndrome came from that family, this stopped his research, he wrote in an email: “They actually bought the family.”<br> <br> Two experts in research ethics contacted by <i> World Science</i> said such a payment sounded ethically dubious. A third said it might be wrong, or just rude, depending on the details of the case.<br> <br> Nicholas Humphrey, one of the U.K. scientists, said he couldn’t say much about the research, because of restrictions related to the upcoming documentary. He declined to discuss the alleged payment.<br> <br> But he denied having usurped any credit, saying he has duly credited the Turkish researcher, Uner Tan. A published paper by Humphrey acknowledges Tan’s invitation and says Tan conducted initial studies on the case.<br> <br> Yet Humphrey, of the London School of Economics, added that the syndrome’s real discoverer seems to have been not Tan but another Turkish researcher, Osman Demirhan. Demirhan didn’t answer emails from <i>World Science</i>.<br> <br> The BBC’s Jemima Harrison, director of the documentary, also declined to discuss the dispute, though she said in an email this week that the film is scheduled to appear March 17.<br> <br> While Humphrey may be contending with a misconduct allegation, Tan is on the defensive for another reason: his science. </font> <p><font size="2" face="Arial">He has advanced the unusual theory that the syndrome represents “backward evolution” or “devolution,” and other still less orthodox concepts—provoking deep skepticism, even jeers, from other researchers.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial"> “Is this a hoax?” wrote Thomas Suddendorf, a psychologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, by email after seeing a paper by Tan from the March issue of the <i> International Journal of Neuroscience</i>. Humphrey claimed Tan’s bizarre theories are why an initially friendly working relationship between the two began fraying.<br> <br> Tan, of Cukurova University Medical School in Adana, Turkey, has responded to the criticism noting that reverse evolution is a well studied, if controversial, concept.<br> <br> For instance, a paper by U.S. scientists in the October 2003 issue of the scientific journal <i> Trends in Ecology and Evolution</i> stated: “Evolution in reverse is a widespread phenomenon in biology; however, many researchers are only just beginning to take notice” of its importance.<br> <br> Even more people will take notice of the wrist-walkers if the BBC documentary airs. But Tan is not happy with how this notice has been arranged. <br> <br> He said in an email that Humphrey’s team, besides selling the story to the British station, apparently paid the wrist-walkers’ Turkish family to stop cooperating with other researchers. The family, which is poor, got 1,000 euros (about $1,200 US) and newly installed gas and electric service, Tan said. There was no word on who would pay the continuing bills.</font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial">One expert in scientific ethics said such a deal might be unethical, or simply rude, depending on the details of the case. </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial"> “It might be a matter of research etiquette,” and nothing more, wrote Jonathan Moreno, who directs the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. From the family’s standpoint, “There’s no obligation to be in research at all, so there can’t be an obligation to stay in a particular study,”<br> <br> But two other experts said they would seriously question such a transaction, unless it passed careful review by one of the ethics panels that research institutions appoint for such purposes.<br> <br> “I’m suspicious all over the place,” said Arthur L. Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics in Philadelphia. </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial"> Payments to research participants are normal, he added, but they must be reviewed to ensure they’re neither unfairly small, nor too large. “You’re not supposed to bribe people into being subjects,” he said, and participants should have advocates to explain their rights to them.<br> <br> “This wouldn’t be right in terms of the protection of research subjects and it certainly wouldn’t be right in terms of the sharing of research knowledge,” wrote Michael Kalichman, director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego, in an email. </font></b><font face="Arial" size="2"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>* * *</p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060301_wristfrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></p> <p><font color="#ffffff"><i>Related stories:<br> </i><a href="http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060225_syndromefrm.htm" target="_top"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Times New Roman; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Claim of reversed human evolution sparks skepticism, interest</span></a> (Feb. 27)<br> <a href="http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060221_unertanfrm.htm">“Backward evolution” spawns ape-like people</a> (Feb. 21)</font></p> <p> </p> <p></b></p> </font> </center></td> </tr> </table> </body>