Unfortunately, many Koreans including I associate stem cells, the greatest asset of modern science, with one of the most scandalous incidents of fraud in human history. A sequence of revelations and the ensuing national delirium has showed how science, when combined with blind nationalism and dirty political calculations, can push one nation into an abyss of irrationality.
It was 2004 when Hwang, a professor/researcher of Seoul National University, announced that his team was successful in culturing an embryonic stem cell from a cloned human somatic cell. This seemingly groundbreaking achievement, outlined in a 9 page paper published in <Science> (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/303/5664/1669.full.pdf), gave Hwang a literally untouchable reputation as a national hero. Hwang's method of creating an embyonic stem cell was a classical one that extracts the embryo from a zygote (This means that Hwang's method, regardless of the all scandals and scams involved, was to soon become outdated whatsoever, along with the discovery of the innovative iPSC method.) Awed by this seemingly unforeseen technology and the new possibilities sprouting from it, Koreans lavished almost unconditional support to this powerful figure. There were even talks about adding his success story in middle school textbook. That pretty much explains itself.
In 2005, a group of young scientists in an online community named BRIC raised questions about the pictures used in Hwang's 2004 paper. Apparently the pictures used in Hwang's paper were all identical, merely a set of photos taken in different angles. As the doubt rapidly spread online, Hwang's team promptly announced that everything was a minor 'mistake', and claimed that they have already informed <Science> about this error. These excuses later on turned out to be flagrant lies. The entire nation was divided into two. Many politicians and mass media zealously defended Hwang, condemning the doubters as traitors to the nation. Many scientists and experts who either questioned or criticized Hwang were often blackmailed by his advocates. Engulfing the country was Fascist madness that, no matter what Hwang has done, every Korean should all support this hopless fraud and cheat. Eventually after a sequence of honest testimonies given by many courageous whistle-blowers, Hwang was virtually ostracized from the Korean scientific community.
This shameful incident was literally an atomic bomb dropped on Korean society. Perhaps the ugliest aspects of Korea were revealed to the world--moral hazard of scientists who refused to seek the truth, corrupted politicians who advocated Hwang for political purposes, incompetence of the government to resolve the situation, academia's negligence in scientific verification, and above all, the Korean people's tendency of extreme nationalism. We have seen through this incident how the interference of nationalism in science can cause unimaginably detrimental consequences. Science should always exist as science. "Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world." (Pasteur).
