Baby, it's all wrong now

Every time there's news from Stanford any more, it's bad. Now the president of the university, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, is being investigated after the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, reported on apparent alterations of images in some of the scholarly neurobiology papers he published before he became the university president (at roughly $1.7 million a year).

David Chassin, a senior scientist who manages a group of researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, wrote that “This story is evolving in ways that make me question my decision to come to Stanford and SLAC to conduct my research in the first place.”

“Based on the guide, had the research been conducted at SLAC I imagine we would already be processing MTL’s paperwork for dismissal for cause,” Chassin wrote. “The fact that his past research activities did not conform with Stanford’s standards at that time is the most relevant question in my mind, and these revelations should disqualify him from holding any current position at Stanford or SLAC. The credibility of the entire organization is at stake and it should be painfully obvious to all that his personal privilege is subordinated to that of the organization he leads.”

Oh, and the board of trustees were then busted for conflict of interest in investigating the matter.

Felix Baker, the only trustee who was appointed to the committee with a bioscience background, will no longer be a member of the committee. This comes after The Daily discovered that Baker’s investment firm, co-founded by him and his brother, maintains an $18 million stake in Denali Therapeutics, a biotechnology company co-founded by Tessier-Lavigne. Now serving on its board of directors and as a scientific advisor, Tessier-Lavigne maintains more than $50 million of stock in Denali.

Another bummer from Palo Alto. To be added to a long list over the last three years: 

• Scott Atlas.
• Condi Rice.
• The Federalist Society Karens. 
• Censorship, at Betsy DeVos's behest, about systemic racism. 
• Anti-Semitism and its coverup. 
• The guy who, while on the law faculty as a visitor, invented the bounty provisions in the new abortion bans.
• The $9 million-a-year football coach who went 6-18 the last two years.

Even Disgraced Crypto Boy grew up in the faculty ghetto. Now this.

God bless the writers at the Daily. They're still getting it done while the rest of the outfit falls on its face, time after time after time. In the unlikely event I ever gave any money to Stanford, it would be to the Daily.