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   Nano-scientist's dark secret   
   By Nick Green   
      
   One of the most brilliant scientific researchers of recent years   
   stands accused of committing an elaborate scientific fraud, fooling   
   many eminent experts.   
      
   In 2001, a team led by Hendrik Schoen appeared to have invented the   
   smallest organic transistor ever made.   
   Only a single molecule in length, it was hailed as a huge   
   breakthrough, capable of transforming the world of computers.   
      
   But, as BBC Two's Horizon programme shows this week, the   
   "breakthrough" led to his disgrace and began a cascade of events that   
   would result in one of the most intriguing science stories of recent   
   years.   
      
   When he published his work, Schoen's tiny transistor was regarded as a   
   discovery that could have blasted open the world of nanotechnology -   
   where cheap, powerful computers could transform the world in which we   
   live.   
      
   Stuff of legend   
      
   Transistors are the minute "switches" that control the flow of   
   information in a computer chip. The more you can fit on to a chip, the   
   more powerful your computer.   
      
   Schoen's transistor was far smaller than anything possible on a   
   silicon chip, so it seemed to herald a new age when computer power   
   could grow to undreamed of levels.   
      
   It was the latest in a long line of great discoveries made by Schoen.   
   He was only in his early 30s and yet had already made advances in the   
   world of superconductors and lasers.   
      
   His name had become so prominent in the scientific journals that to   
   many of his rivals he had taken on legendary status.   
      
   Professor Jeremy Baumberg, from Southampton University, UK, told   
   Horizon: "This was the new level of science that you had to match   
   yourself up against, and everybody knew they couldn't, they couldn't   
   meet that.   
      
   "It was like competing against a god really." But his transistor work   
   had surpassed everything he had done before.   
      
   Growing doubts   
      
   What he had apparently achieved was a way of connecting up dye-like   
   molecules in a transistor circuit. When the circuit was switched on,   
   they found it had the same characteristics as a silicon transistor.   
      
   It was a double breakthrough. Schoen's transistor was not just very   
   small, it was made from simple organic molecules.   
      
   He had beaten a huge raft of teams around the world to the discovery   
   of the first non-silicon-based transistor. One rival, Paul McEuen, at   
   Cornell University, was amazed.   
      
      
   "It was really stunning to those of us who'd been toiling away long   
   and hard to try to make these kind of things work. It just blew us out   
   of the water."   
   Once it was published, there were those who speculated it could be the   
   first step in a journey that could lead to the death of the silicon   
   chip industry.   
      
   It promised incredibly cheap computer chips that did not need to be   
   manufactured in hugely expensive fabrication plants, but instead could   
   be custom-built, at a fraction of the cost, in simple laboratories.   
      
   But during the excitement surrounding this discovery, there were those   
   who had doubts about the veracity of the science.   
      
   Many of Hendrik Schoen's fantastic claims just could not be repeated   
   in the lab by rival scientists, and many were getting frustrated. It   
   had got to the point where there were serious whisperings about his   
   credibility.   
      
   No chance   
      
   One of those who had heard the rumours was Professor Lydia Sohn, now   
   working at the University of California at Berkeley, but even she was   
   surprised when after getting into work one morning she found a message   
   on her answerphone. "It said: 'Lydia, this is your homework, look at   
   these two papers by Hendrik'."   
      
   The two papers described Schoen's transistor work, but crucially they   
   told of two completely different experiments.   
      
   After reading and rereading the journals, Sohn found that the two   
   papers contained graphs that were exactly the same. Her colleague Paul   
   McEuen believed that the chance of these two separate experiments   
   giving the same results was "basically zero".   
      
   Further analysis of his papers going back through previous years   
   provided more evidence of suspicious data.   
      
   Schoen's employers, Bell Laboratories, instantly launched an   
   independent investigation into his conduct and the verdict was   
   damning.   
      
   After its findings were released, Bell fired Schoen. Nature, the   
   journal which had published much of his work, retracted the suspect   
   papers triggering a huge amount of soul searching in the scientific   
   community.   
      
   The hunt for a single molecular transistor to rival silicon goes on.   
      
   Horizon's The Dark Secret of Hendrik Schoen is broadcast on BBC Two at   
   2100 GMT on Thursday 5 February.   
      
   Story from BBC NEWS:   
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3459769.stm   
      
   Published: 2004/02/04 16:54:11 GMT   
   --   
   Iain x   http://18hz.com   
      
   "I wouldn't tell people that Father Christmas didn't exist - it's the   
   same as that" http://www.eclipse.co.uk/thoughts/noblelie.htm   
      
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