How hard is it to fake scientific research?
Faking the actual results is the easy bit. But the scientific method relies on ‘replication’. In other words, for the community to adopt a new theory, results must be independently repeated and validated through identical experiments in different labs. Though it’s hard to fool the entire scientific community, fraudulent science does happen from time to time. Critics suggest that the complex social factors at play within science open it up to all kinds of risks of foul play.
