小說《Raw Data》中一些有趣的情節

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《Raw Data》

Raw Data: A Novel on Life in Science (9783319239729): Pernille R?rth: Books

這是一本講述生命科學科研工作者辛苦搬磚故事的小說。小說的主線涉及到兩位才華橫溢而又野心勃勃的博士後Chloe和Karen。其中的一條主線涉及到了Chloe發表nature文章，到最後卻因為偽造數據而被撤稿的故事。

小說的作者Pernille R?rth曾擔任過幾個不同國家實驗室的大老闆和EMBO journal的執行編輯，現居哥本哈根。

本書中有很多非常有意思的內容，主要是對話，現在摘錄幾段

「There she is.」 Tom beams pleasantly. 「Chloe, this is Frank Lockwood, science reporter from the New York Times. He is here to do a story on your Nature paper.」

Chloe是一個非常出色的博士後，發了一篇Nature。其成果更是獲得了紐約時報的報道。

「No, not off the top of my head. I would have to look at my notes.」
「Right, notebooks, yes.」 Sushma makes a few brisk notes before she
continues. 「So all we need now in order to settle this is for me to have a
look at the raw data from this experiment.」
「The raw data?」
「Yes, of course. The data you used to make the graph.」
「They are just numbers. The numbers are in my notebook.」
「But there must be something else. Some sort of evidence that can prove
you had these results in hand when the paper was submitted.」

「No, just the numbers. Don』t you need evidence from my accusers? You
just believe them? Why do I need to prove Im innocent? That doesn』t seem right.」

面對質疑，Chloe提出可以提交原始數據。但在進一步的追問下，或許由於情緒失控，Chloe反問道「難道你不需要那些質疑者的證據？你就那樣相信了他們？我為什麼要自證清白？這看起來不對。」

「I might have some histology slides in the fridge. Yes, I should have some slides in the fridge.」 She adds, finally. 「OK, Chloe.」 Sushma seems to be wrapping up.
Chloe opens it and crouches down to look inside. She takes out a stack of slide holders, opens a few of them and shakes her head slightly each time. She replaces the slide holders. For a while, she just sits, still looking into the open fridge. She turns around, looks up at Sushma and shakes her head one more time, very deliberately. Sushma understands and nods. Chloe gets up slowly. Sushma picks up her bag and the lab notebook that Chloe gave her. She shakes Chloe』s hand, and leaves the lab quietly.
…… ……
「Someone took them,」 Chloe says in a firm voice. 「Someone took the slides
from my fridge.」 She is all rigid determination, sitting in the chair opposite
Tom』s and looking him straight in the eyes.

在進一步調查之中，Chloe提出有組織切片可以證明。結果當老闆和負責人與Chloe一起來實驗室找的時候，卻沒有發現切片。「有人把片子從我冰箱里拿走了」，這是Chloe對於材料不見蹤影的解釋。這一切可以說讓Chloe十分被動。

「Look」 Chloe continues. 「I have a solution. I can redo the experiment that
has been questioned. I can repeat it as much as you want, so you can see that
the original data are correct. That way, the data in the paper will be
confirmed.」

Chloe提出「我可以再做那個被質疑的實驗。你想重複幾次我就能重複幾次，這樣你就能明白原始數據是正確的。」但老闆Tom還是指定了另外的人選來負責重複這個實驗，並且重複失敗了。

「That』s simple enough. They just didn』t do it properly. What happened was
that he, Tom, Dr. Palmer, pressured a number of postdocs from the lab into
repeating all my data. A whole bunch of them, and none of them know the
techniques as well as I do. Tom doesn』t, either. So there they were,

unmotivated and in a hurry to finish because it is not their project, the perfect
situation for making mistakes. And then we are supposed to believe their
results over mine? It makes no sense. The most outrageous thing was that he
included the instigator of this whole thing in the farce as well. She probably
made sure some of the experiments failed.」

從這裡可以看出，Chloe對於自己實驗結果未能被重複給出了解釋：「他們中沒有人像我這樣熟知實驗技巧。」由此可知這一實驗需要高超的實驗技巧。所以老闆指定的人選才沒能重複出實驗結果。

當然隨著劇情的推移，圍繞著Chloe文章所帶來的種種疑問最後也被一一揭開了。小說中對此有著精彩和生動的描寫，我就不劇透了。