Scientists are people too; they'll lie to advance their own interests

I've got a Ph.D. in Physics and I spent a little time working in academia on basic research.  What I learned is that scientists are just as capable of being schmucks as anyone else.

That's why when leftists act as though scientists who espouse causes that the left supports, like Global Warming...err Climate Change, are incapable of error and always honest I can't help but shake my head.

Like most people most scientists are honest and when their research doesn't depend on political support they're unlikely to lie. But when saying certain things, like we're all going to die unless the government gets massively bigger right now, means tons of money for them they like, everyone else, can give in to temptation.

A recent example is Duke University having to pay $112 million for research fraud. In order to keep the Federal Grants flowing a scientist falsified data that was submitted to the Federal government. The person in question lied so as to enhance his economic situation.

We saw this during the nuclear winter debacle too.  Scientists knew that the whole idea of a very limited nuclear strike exterminating life on the planet was insane but said nothing because Carl Sagan was using that claim to keep President Reagan from defending America from a Russian first strike and leftists scientists wanted America left undefended.

That's why science is about reproducible experiments not the personal authority of scientists.