Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Did you witness the Mirkin/Levy contretemps?

Did you witness the Mirkin/Levy contretemps at ACS Boston? (Here's Dr. Levy's account.) Want to talk to a science journalist (who is not me) about it? E-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com before noon Thursday ET.
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6 comments:

  1. Dr ZoidbergAugust 30, 2018 at 11:05 AM

    Not sure if you saw this thread on Reddit. No eyewitness accounts, but a couple of people who seem personally familiar with the Mirkin/Levy controversy chime in, including Levy himself. There's more to their relationship than just what happened at this talk.

    https://old.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/98wt71/raphael_levy_and_chad_mirkin_at_acs_boston/

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 30, 2018 at 6:17 PM

    I think it's interesting that Levy removed most of the one comment on his blog in response to that post.

    It also seems like he's doing a lot to put his actions into the best possible context, including only showing supporting replies.

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  3. AnonymousAugust 31, 2018 at 9:50 AM

    If that reddit post is accurate, it sounds like Levy has been harassing Mirkin a bit and Mirkin has likely snapped... Kind of similar to that one conspiracy theorist that was following Buzz Aldrin around with a camera and kept telling him to admit the moon landing was faked and one day, Aldrin punched the guy out in the street.

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2018 at 1:16 PM

      The difference between Mirkin/Levy and conspiracy theory/moon is that.....

      i) several *independent*, well qualified nanoparticle/cell bio labs have independently try to replicate the work of Mirkin. They failed, and they have gone on the record as failing.
      ii) A supplier has stopped selling the particles because they DON'T Work.
      iii) there is no plausible physical explanation for chad's nanoflares mechanism of action.

      Chad Mirkin has done a lot of good science. It's clear he overreached here, and oversold work which doesn't work, and now his fanbase is trying to defend him.

      Science is meant to be self-correcting, and the corrections should be done by peers. Levy is a peer. When bad science is done - even by rich and powerful people with impressive track records, IT NEEDS TO BE CALLED OUT so other scientists and society. don't waste their time and money.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJuly 25, 2019 at 2:59 PM

      Look at how investors end up seeing Mirkin's stuff. That tells you all you need to know.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousDecember 14, 2023 at 1:37 PM

      Fast forward to now: investors in Chad Mirkin's technologies have lost their shirts because of course it doesn't work. Overall, Mirkin's history of producing commercially viable technologies is abysmal. Levy was completely right.

      Delete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20

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