Cornell Food Researcher’s Downfall Raises Larger Questions For Science

The fall of a prominent food and marketing researcher may be a cautionary tale for scientists who are tempted to manipulate data and chase headlines.

Brian Wansink, the head of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, announced last week that he would retire from the university at the end of the academic year. Less than 48 hours earlier, JAMA, a journal published by the American Medical Association, had retracted six of Wansink’s studies, after Cornell told the journal’s editors that Wansink had not kept the original data and the university could not vouch for the validity of his studies. Read more